


Somewhere Far from Victory

by ewfte



Series: Victory Series [1]
Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Canon Autistic Character, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Friendship, Gen, Homophobia, Kakashi is horrible at emotional vulnerability, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rebirth, Scars, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 15:03:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12323409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewfte/pseuds/ewfte
Summary: A fact about Todoroki Shouto: that is not his name.





	1. The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out for Rose for betaing this for me and laughing at all the right parts. I hope you got enough of your bird boyfriend.
> 
> Extensive knowledge of Naruto is not necessary to read this fic.

One: The fall

 

Todoroki Shouto is born an empty husk that is slowly filled with something bathed in secrets and death and misery. Todoroki is a child condemned from the moment his father laid eyes on an acceptable Quirk. Todoroki is doomed from their marriage, doomed from his birth, doomed from the first time fire spouted from his fingertips and danced in tandem to ice.

 

Todoroki Shouto has already fallen when he opens blurry eyes and thinks, “Where am I?”

 

The answer: a hospital in Shizuoka, the fourth floor of a towering building, an OBGYN ward filled with screams from women and screams from infants and happy tears and overwhelming joy.

 

Todoroki’s mother might just be the only woman there who looks at her small child, an infant with her hair and one eye that looks just like her mother’s and one that looks just like _his_ , and feels fear.

 

Todoroki’s father does not notice. He is thinking of heterochromia and chromosomes perfectly divided and weapons wrapped in child-flesh.

 

His mother is consumed by terror and his father is drowning in revenge and Todoroki can only dimly recognize that this is not Konoha before sleep drags him away from the tragedy of his barely lived life.

-

 

When he wakes, he realizes many things.

 

Most importantly: he is not home, he is not in war, he is not himself.

 

This is a child’s body, a thing of baby fat and soft bone and utter defenselessness. He is afraid in the only way a soldier can, in the only way a man who has spent twenty-five years of his life in battle can. Fear is numbness and apathy that takes his soul and spreads it until he cannot feel the twists of his stomach and his vigilance is only interrupted when exhaustion overwhelms him.

 

His name is Todoroki Shouto and he was born a knife to be wielded by a vengeful man burning with arrogance and inferiority. He was born a tool, a crack in his mother’s blank façade, a thing to be distantly pitied.

 

His name is Hatake Kakashi and he has never known anything else.


	2. Peace

Two: Peace

 

He has never known kindness like this.

 

It eats him alive.

 

His mother is soft in ways that would have been systemically dismantled with cruel ease in another world. She reads to him so quietly and holds him so gently and carries him around the sprawling manor with a small smile on her face.

 

She holds herself with the tenseness of a man hovering over a bed of coals. She twitches at loud noises, little shocks of movement that hitch the natural sway of her walk and flow of her speak.

 

She acts like the civilians he interacted with in the very beginnings of the fourth war his world had faced, the second he would live through. Back before stress and lack of sleep and the constant hail of explosive tags had dulled their senses. Back before seeing the dead was an everyday occurrence. Back when they could actually worry about who would die next, back before they _knew_.

 

For four years he is coddled, swaddled in warm clothing and comforted when he wakes up gasping from nightmares.

 

For four years his mother and his grandmother discuss him like the child he is. They talk about the soft fluff of his silver hair, the seriousness of his solemn looks, the distant way his eyes track movement. They worry about his silence, the dreams that shake him awake in the middle of the night, the way he looks so bored at childhood games.

 

These will be the most quiet years of his life, past or present. He does not remember his original childhood that well, it’s a fuzz of war-days and dog-smells and the lines under his father’s, his real father’s, eyes. He remembers being taught to hold a knife, to flip his hands in complicated seals, to admire the calligraphy that twists into words of power under his uncle’s fingers.

 

Four years he is disregarded is irrelevant. It is a temporary solace from gore and dying-times. It allows him to order his thoughts, debrief himself clinically, compartmentalize as a soldier should.

 

He knows it will not last. Like truces between the warring nations, it only is a passing relief for armies to swell and weapons to develop. Todoroki knows that grudges last where peace doesn’t. He has lived twenty-five years at war.

 

Four years of rest cannot overshadow that.


	3. His Father

Three: His father

 

The first time he hated this figure, he was Hatake still, a child sent to fight his father’s war. He hated his dad as his neighbors sneered, as his first team left him in a ditch under heavy fire (they promised to come back as he provided cover for their escape; they lied), as he killed a man for the first time.

 

He hated his father when he came home to find Hatake Sakumo in a pool of blood with a sword lodged in his stomach, hands still wrapped around the hilt.

 

Hatake Kakashi hated his father until a man with hair like the sun and a smile like a benevolent god taught him to grieve.

 

Todoroki Shouto does not hate his father. He will not give that man the privilege.

 

When he is four, his mother’s words taper off. She no longer coos at his silver hair, stops carrying him everywhere she goes, makes more of an effort to keep him quiet, to keep him hidden.

 

She treats him like he is dying. He does not know why until power he has been missing for four years slowly unfurls in his gut.

 

Chakra, he thinks.

 

Then he reconsiders. He can feel none of the power his old universe relied on in this world. It simply does not exist. Instead, strength exists in mutations, Quirks that evolved over generations.

 

His father is decked in flame. His mother makes sculptures of ice.

 

Todoroki reaches down into the well of possibility in his stomach and burns cold. His face splits perfectly into swirls of frost and tendrils of flame. The silver of his hair is blown upwards by the rapid temperature change and floats in a haze of steam.

 

One palm for ice. One palm for fire.

 

His mother chokes on her sobs. His father grins with too many teeth.

 

Then training starts and his four years of peace are over.


	4. His Siblings

Four: His siblings

 

He never had siblings.

 

To be perfectly honest, at six he still doesn’t know what having siblings is like. They exist in family dinners where his mother tries to hide the bruises on her arms and there is stifling stillness surrounding his father’s steady movements.

 

In these moments, Todoroki realizes that he is the only one in the room who is not afraid of this man bathed in flame and arrogance.

 

It makes him angry. He does not hate his father, does not spare the energy to hate him, but when he is knocked to the training mats from a kick he could not possibly block at this size, when his nose snaps with a crack and blood pours down his chin, Shouto looks at Todoroki Enji and thinks, “I could kill you.”

 

He could do it so easily too. Todoroki Enji trained to be a hero, a soldier on the streets, and he is the second most powerful man in the world.

 

But Todoroki Shouto, Hatake Kakashi in the body of a child, was raised a shinobi. He holds the record for earliest graduation, earliest promotion to chunin, youngest Commander of the Jounin Forces, highest kill count in Anbu, and largest bounty in the international bingo books.

 

He could kill his father and no one would know he was guilty.

 

Shouto’s left hand curls into a fist. His right hand sheds flakes of ice as he twists his broken nose back into alignment.

 

He thinks of the siblings he never sees, the mother who can no longer look at him, the father who thinks him a thing to control. He thinks about twenty-five years of war, a man with hair like the sun and a smile like a god, a genin team, a country he was raised to die for.

 

He thinks about rules and honor and the terrible weight of legacies.

 

Todoroki Shouto does not kill Endeavor.

 

Instead, he skips personal training while his father is out saving the world. He walks to the living room where he hears the voices of brothers and a sister he has never met.

 

Fuyumi paints his nails a bright pink and when she shakes her head in laughter, the streaks of red that fall through her hair flash like neon against a misty night. Michio falls asleep in the middle of a movie and lies slumped against Fuyumi’s shoulder. While she complains about homework and choosing high schools, Akano steals potato chips from her plate. In revenge, she yanks tufts of his hair into red ponytails and digs her knuckles into his scalp.

 

It’s loud and happy and there’s something like relief curling through all four of them.

 

Endeavor stumbles through the door at one in the morning. The acrid smell of smoke and burning rubber and ash invades the house.

 

When he opens the door to Todoroki’s room, the boy is curled in on himself, breaths puffing in a quiet staccato. He’s living through the memories of Iwa shinobi with cracked lips and ruined streets in the aftermath of Pein and the slide of a kunai against his ribs. Images of almost losing Gai, of failing his team, of war and death and blood on his hands in time to the rapid rise and fall to his chest.

 

Endeavor closes the door.

 

The house is silent.


	5. His Scar

Five: His scar

 

At six, Hatake Kakashi graduates to chunin in a tent in the middle of a marsh. They can’t burn the corpses of the frontlines fast enough and when his unit is not choking on smoke, it’s gagging on the scent of rot. Kakashi is given a field promotion by a jounin with an arm in a mud stained sling and a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. The man looks at Kakashi once, sees a child, sees a weapon, and passes the reinforced vest to him.

 

Kakashi removes his tanto to pull it on. It does not fit, hanging to his mid thigh and weighing him down with its metal plating.

 

His genin team abandoned him in a ditch two weeks ago. The war started two years and seven months ago and news had just reached their waterlogged platoon that Suna’s puppeteer squad ambushed a troop of leaf shinobi camped right outside their border. They are waiting to see if Kiri tips into the fight now that the other four major powers are actively at war.

 

He returns home in a month and says something he regrets and walks into his house to find his last remaining family in a puddle of blood. The Hatake, one of the last ancient families that survived the Warring Clans period, is made up of just him now.

 

A message from the southern border patrol reaches Konoha within the same week. Kiri has landed. Konoha is fighting on three fronts.

 

Kakashi is shipped out the next day.

-

 

At six, Todoroki Shouto is a canvas of bruises and burns and broken knuckles. He is progressing faster than any of his siblings, running faster than children twice his age, fighting harder than students Endeavor went to school with.

 

He is a genius, but no one calls him that. He remains in classes with his age group when he does go to school, which is not often (Endeavor has appearances to keep up and Todoroki is a canvas of abuse and the principle allows Michio to take Todoroki’s school work home when the boy cannot make it himself). He does not raise his hand and carries textbook sized tomes around in a backpack that hangs off his skinny shoulders.

 

Todoroki is in love with history and physics and chemistry and technology. Everything about this world initially seemed so easy to adapt to, just slightly different but familiar enough for him to seamlessly blend in, but then Todoroki discovered the internet and records of events dating back thousands of years and names for the stars in the sky and explanations as to how the land was made.

 

It’s everything he deemed impossible to know in his other world. Shinobi were so afraid of giving enemies advantages that they burned their pasts and laid trails of propaganda rather than just share knowledge. Todoroki reads about different cultures and social struggles and languages and he wants to cry.

 

This is what he searched for at fourteen when his sensei had just died and it felt like it would never stop raining. When he needed escape, when he needed memories in the forms of seals and sunshine.

 

He went into Anbu in that universe. He drowned thoughts of following his father’s path and thought of just running away in blood and gore and blackened lines in mission reports. He numbed himself with violence and alcohol and his mask appeared in bingo books to Bird Country and he got lost for a while in that hell he volunteered for.

 

It took him seven years to climb out. Todoroki ices his bruises now as he hides in the library, bent over a book on the Bolshevik Revolution (and isn’t that an idea, starting a revolt and overthrowing your leaders? Everyone thought Kiri was an anomaly with their genocides and rebellion, but it exists here too. It exists all over this universe in colleges and on street corners and online), and wonders if he could have escaped sooner if he had this much available to him.

 

He went into Anbu to drown his sense of failure. He killed his personality, warped his sense of humor into something unrecognizable there and it took him seven years to climb out.

 

Here, Todoroki recovers with Wikipedia and podcasts and youtube videos and for the first time in a long time, in this dusty library surrounded by topics that were banned in another universe, he feels free.

 

It does not last.

 

When he returns home, he hears his mother in the kitchen. She’s talking on the phone to his grandmother and there’s the dull chopping sound of her cutting vegetables for dinner.

 

“-can’t even see him sometimes, he looks just like _him_. It’s that eye. I can’t stand the sight of that eye anymore! It feels like _he’s_ watching my out of Shouto’s face, like _he_ can see everything I’m doing! I can’t-”

 

A creak, his foot against the floor.

 

She drops the phone. It breaks with a sharp crack against the ground, pieces of glass and plastic splintering everywhere.

 

“Shouto?” she asks as she slowly turns to face him.

 

He’s standing inside the doorframe, face half shaded from the glare of the kitchen light. She pales when she sees him, one hand reaching towards her mouth, covering it like she’s afraid to open it, afraid of what’s going to come out.

 

In the darkness of the doorway and under the haggard beams of light, his left eye glows bright blue and obvious against his silver hair and light skin.

 

Shouto stares at his mother with the same solemn look he’s worn since birth.

 

Her breath hitches and her chest moves in jagged bursts as if her diaphragm is attempting to choke her.

 

He realizes distantly, that her hand is still wrapped around the knife.

-

 

They cannot save his eye in the end. Endeavor rages and Fuyumi cries and his brothers stand in silent fury. His mother is taken to a hospital, locked away in a tiny room in a psychiatric ward.

 

They cannot save his eye, but that is okay. Todoroki is used to it.


	6. School

Six: School

 

When Todoroki is eleven, he attends a private middle school with the highest rate of graduation into the hero profession in the prefecture.

 

It’s strange to be going to school still. By this point in another world, he was a legal adult who paid taxes and lived alone and did his laundry.

 

Here, schooling lasts for decades. There’s highschool and college and post-graduate studies that can last for nine years as theses are written and field research is done.

 

There’s a part of him that wants that desperately. It’s small and wedged under emotions like self-hatred and grief, but it has existed across universes in scrolls on sealing and in complicated patterns he shifts his fingers into to make the sky light up and in multi-chaptered analyses of how World War One started. Todoroki wants to fly to Russia and learn the language beyond his faltering grasp of it and access classified KGB paperwork and read the diaries of old women living in 1940s Stalingrad. He wants to go to Americas, to visit the remains of empires, to hike into the mountains, to see ancient ingenious forms of architecture. He has gotten a taste of some of the secrets available in this world for those who look for them, and he’s addicted now. He wants more.

 

Endeavor takes Shouto’s lack of homework (he completes it during lectures and lunch) as more time for training. Shouto is still a patchwork of blues and sickly yellows and bandaged burns. He slips sometimes, forgets that there is no chakra to steady him or speed him up, that there has not been chakra for eleven years. He slips sometimes and he misses the next week of class as he ices his fractured bones and waits for them to heal.

 

So instead of wishing for an impossibility (though he is very good at this), Todoroki shaves time from everything else to make room for what he personally wants. His book-shelves fill with English and Russian texts, articles on the political movements of the post-Ottoman Middle East scatter his floor, and there’s a cardboard box of erotica and shitty romance novels wedged under his bed.

 

It’s not Icha Icha, but it makes good material for when he’s exhausted of doing anything productive.

 

His grades in school are perfect. Everything he does is calculated to score full credit with the least amount of time taken. He eats lunch on his way to the library and attends his mandatory art classes with an air of amusement.

 

Todoroki’s teachers want to talk to him about applying himself more. His work is perfect, but it never goes beyond the 100% mark. There is no enthusiasm in his words, no sign of struggle in his writing. They want to talk to him, but hold back in part for lack of an actual problem and part in fear of his father.

 

Todoroki’s peers seem to simultaneously want to be close to him and very far away at the same time. They stare at his eye patch and black facemask and wild silver hair that has grown out due to lack of attention. He hides in empty classes during his breaks to prevent conversation and talks in cut-off sentences to discourage crushes.

 

Puberty is striking the masses of children he is surrounded by, and it’s ever scarier than the first time around. Half his grade is attracted to him and the other half envies him and he is very lonely.

 

He’s used to it, though.

 

Todoroki scrolls through the news tagged ‘Endeavor’ on his train ride home. He checks recent sightings and estimates the amount of time he has until his father gets back to the house and everything goes deadly still.

 

Fuyumi is passed out on the couch in her scrubs, keys still hanging from her limp fingers. Todoroki untangles them and places them on the table by the front door. He shrugs out of his jacket, pulls off his eye patch, and changes into a pair of sweatpants. His school clothes get tossed into a pile by the washing machine and a blanket is thrown over Fuyumi’s form.

 

Akano moved out after the incident with the knife and Shouto’s eye. He works IT for some major company and looks like a ganglier version of their father. Michio left for college last year. Fuyumi works in a nursing home as an aid.

 

Todoroki is distantly jealous. He wants knowledge and lectures and sabbaticals spent learning.

 

But that is not his future. From the moment his parents met, he has been destined for this life. Todoroki was born to be the number one, the product of a twisted scheme of revenge and inferiority.

 

He has no say in his career. This was decided from the moment fire danced in tandem with ice on his fingertips. He was to be a hero capable of surpassing All Might.

 

That’s okay though, Todoroki is used to this.


	7. The Exam

Seven: The Exam

 

Here is what Todoroki can do at fifteen:

 

Run a mile in under five minutes, lift his body weight, pin a grown man in a hold, create a glacier in twenty minutes, create a forest fire even faster, subdue a room of assailants, speak English fluently, use a variety of melee weapons with proficiency even Endeavor is shocked by, create software programs at the level of a second year Comp Sci major.

 

Todoroki creates techniques Endeavor never dreamed of. He can control his body temperature to suit almost every weather condition, freeze patches of the ground to manipulate an environment and give himself an edge, stun opponents with bright flashes of fire at close range.

 

He figures out how to make boiling clouds of steam by superheating planes of ice. He researches weather patters until he can create rainfall by generating fronts. He produces explosions out of nothing by cooling then rapidly heating air.

 

It does not compare to pulling lightening from the sky, but Todoroki’s working on that. He blisters his fingers with frostbite and burns and fills a notebook full of illustrations of electrostatic discharge. It does not compare to the epithet he once held, the Man of a Thousand Justu, but Todoroki thinks he’s doing well with what he has.

 

This is what Todoroki cannot do:

 

Own a dog, love his father, forget his past, make a friend, hate his father, stop his siblings from pitying him, sleep without nightmares, become anything other than a hero (though he despises the title; he is not a hero, that is reserved for men with hair like sunshine and smiles like gods and women changing the outcome of war by pulling soldiers back from death’s door with their hands and a boy who had everything taken from him, who followed a path of revenge and pain and memory, who fucked up but came back in the end).

 

Todoroki Shouto wants to visit the battlegrounds of the Winter War and meet the Berber people and eat food he has never heard of in his life. He wants personal accounts and technical explanations and to feel fulfillment for one second in his life. He is fifteen and forty-five and a man displaced and a boy once again stumbling under the unconquerable weight of legacies.

 

Todoroki Shouto despises the word hero for the way it titles his father. He detests it for what it forces him to be, what he cannot be. Todoroki Shouto cannot hate his father, cannot express anything more than absent distaste, but can curse what the man requires him to be.

 

Todoroku Shouto is a soldier and a killer and a man who has led his friends to their deaths. He is anything but a hero.

 

“Todoroki Shouto,” he says to the man at the registration desk to U.A. High.

 

He is handed a slip of paper with a seat number and the letter D printed in blocky letters. He reads it, memorizes it, and crushes it up in a fist.

 

He follows the flow of prospective students into a large auditorium and finds his spot somewhere in the middle.

 

Present Mic gets up on the podium in one of the most… interesting costumes Todoroki has ever seen (and he reads really awful romance novels revolving around overpowered heroes and buxom heroines and plot holes so big you could drive a train through them, he knows bad costumes when he sees them). He’s pondering the slant of the man’s hair, lost in thought, until Present Mic opens his mouth to roar.

 

And Todoroki instantly thinks, ‘Gai’.

 

The loss hits him like it had in those early years, before he could move and talk and all he could do was cry too hard or sit in pained silence. The loss hits him and the only thing that keeps replaying in his mind is that last time he saw Gai. Back when he was still Hatake and the leader of a military village. Back when he had paperwork that towered above his head and hard decisions to make, but every Friday he could go to the bar to see his friends, every weekend Sakura would come over with a basket of fruit and stories from the hospital, every mission debrief with Naruto where the kid would gripe and wave his hands too hard and act just like his father, just like Kakashi’s sensei.

 

He stares at Present Mic’s too strange hair and too loud voice and overpowering enthusiasm and thinks back to when he would wheel Gai around in the man’s chair, engage in arm wrestling or jan ken pon, listen to Gai rant about his students and maybe Kakashi would share tales of Team Seven in his own quietly amused way.

 

Todoroki, who is not Todoroki but a man lost in space and time and himself, feels hollow. He’s a man with too much history and too much loss, who is so tired of this. He doesn’t want to be looking at this strange parody of his best friend and he doesn’t want to be in this school testing to be a hero.

 

He wants to see his friends again, see his kids and Pakkun and the rest of the pack and the memorial stone and the redwoods of Konoha.

 

Todoroki blinks out of this haze when he reaches the gate to D examination grounds. He’s in a pair of sweatpants with ‘TODOROKI’ lettered in red up the left leg. He managed to put his black face mask on, the one that resembles his from a different world, not the surgical masks he usually wears, and his eyepatch is wedged in his sweatpants pocket.

 

He scratches at the headband pushing his silver hair from his face and keeps his left eye closed. People are staring at the split lens, the line that drags from his brow down his cheekbone. However, apathy has scraped Todoroki’s sorrow away in preparation for a fight and he can honestly not give a shit.

 

He watches Present Mic raise his hands in preparation to yell and forces down a surge of wild, grief-blind resentment.

 

“Go!” shrieks the man and Todoroki is sprinting towards the entrance before the rest of the D group can react.

 

He makes it through the gate first and glides smoothly out of the way as a giant metal fist crunches down on where he just was.

 

Todoroki narrows his eyes. He cannot recall what was spoken at the presentation, but he is a genius. It does not take much thought to send a spear of ice through the robot labeled with the number three.

 

Capture or incapacitate, he assumes.

 

He does just that.

 

For twenty-five minutes, he ruthlessly cuts down the robots until the ground is littered with scrap metal and ice. Most of them funnel towards the center of the group, where he stands in a blaze of fire and frost, but others race up buildings and attempt to attack other students.

 

Todoroki assumes they are programmed so students have the ability to show off. Instead of heading towards the major threat, him, they section off to fight individual battles. In the end, the teacher should be able to analyze each student’s ability by how they acted when face with a threat.

 

He honestly doesn’t care.

 

A fireball flares into existence in his left hand as his right foot slides to the side and sends a pillar of ice at an approaching robot. The flame sinks low to his palm, glowing blue and heavy with heat. It feels like the air in the surrounding area is slipping away, being pulled right out of Todoroki’s lungs to fuel it.

 

He doesn’t mind. He is used to much worse.

 

Todoroki pulls his arm back, shifts his hips, and chucks the fireball at a mob of robots searching for students not grouped in the middle of the arena. It explodes on impact, ballooning into a massive blaze that engulfs the group of five mechs and melts them until they can barely twitch.

 

One falls from it’s cicada-like grasp on a wall. It careens down into the street below, headed right for a boy with wings protruding from his back.

 

He’s not going to make it, Todoroki thinks, and absently sends a wall of ice to shield the kid before turning back to eliminating more of the metal villains.

 

A blare of an alarm sounds and Present Mic’s voice screeches over to them, announcing the presence of the zero point robot.

 

It’s huge, towering over the students as they turn to run towards the gate. Todoroki just stands in its path, looking up at its blocky body.

 

He’s had a pretty bad day so far. The gargantuan robot doesn’t even know what’s coming for it.

 

Todoroki strolls out of the gate five minutes later. His shirt is slightly singed and his headband keeps slipping over his useable eye, but no injuries mark his body.

 

Behind him lies a seven story robot, a spear of ice extends from the back of its chest and pins it mid-stride.

 

Next is the written test.

 

Todoroki scores perfectly.

\--

 

The observation room is quiet. The students are taking their post-fight examinations, but the teachers sit in silence as footage reels through the screen in front of them.

 

Two zero-pointers were downed this year. That's the most that have been defeated since All Might’s trial.

 

One by a single punch, and Recovery Girl is still complaining about the audacity of the kid to go around risking his life like that. All Might twitches at her words, but his proud smile never fades.

 

Aizawa wonders who exactly the Number One hero has his eyes on. It’s incredibly difficult to figure out, with the noises of concern when the Midoriya kid fell and the similarities in their quirks and now All Might’s grinning face.

 

The other kid does not represent as much of a problem. Well, it depends on how you quantify a problem.

 

Aizawa sees no trouble in placing the kid with his grade. The other teachers however, have been stuck on the totally destruction the Todoroki child waged against the simulation villains.

 

“Do-, do you think we should place him into a higher class?” A gen-ed teacher asks Nezu.

 

Nezu rifles through a stack of records to get to Todoroki’s file. He reads it aloud.

 

“Todoroki Shouto.

 

Ranking in his graduating class: 1st

 

Health information, emergency contacts—hm, that is interesting—placement exam scores are in the 99th percentile, disability accomodations, psychological assessments…

 

“Additional comments note that a teacher filed for Todoroki to be held back a grade due to lack of interpersonal connections with peers. Some noise has been made about the boy’s apparent boredom in his studies, another recommendation for him to take upper-level classes, and his psych profile needs updating.

 

“It seems,” Nezu continues, “Todoroki is what some might think the perfect hero. He’s very good at what he does, to the point of perfection. The only problem in immediately promoting him to a higher class or straight into a sidekick position, is his documented inability to interact with his peers.”

 

Present Mic absently scratches the back of his head, causing his hair to shake alarmingly. “Could it be because of his family name?” He asks.

 

“As a second generation hero,” Snipe drawls, “I had a mixed relationship with my classmates before U.A. Some tried to be friends ‘cause of my ma.”

 

The room of teachers is forced to remember the horrifying hero that raised Snipe. All Might let’s out an almost imperceptible shudder and Present Mic awkwardly laughs under his breath. Midnight’s gaze is distant and dreamy as she undoubtedly recalls the unstoppable force of the Western Witch.

 

“Todoroki might have had trouble connecting with students his age in an environment where his peers are much below his skill level. However, creating relationships with the public and smaller heroes is very important in a hero’s career,” Nezu squeaks.

 

“I agree,” replies Vlad King. “It may also be easier for him to make friends in a smaller class setting.”

 

Nezu makes a notation on Todoroki’s file and moves to the next student.

 

“So, Bakugou Katsuki—”

 

Aizawa closes his eyes as the footage of Todoroki impaling a giant robot switches to Bakugou roaring while explosions fly from his hands. It’s going to be a long day.

\--

 

In the end, Todoroki sets a record for number of total points earned in the entrance exam. With a total of 167 from 107 combat points and 60 rescue points, Todoroki has surpassed even his father.

 

His test results come back perfect. That score is added to his practical total.

 

Todoroki is ranked number one out of the 220 students accepted into U.A. His letter comes within a month and declares his final score as 267. The minimum to enter U.A. is 100 points.

 

He watches All Might’s glowing face congratulate him from the screen. Todoroki plays the message once, twice, then loops the clip until All Might repeats “Young Todoroki! Congratulations on your first steps to becoming a hero!”

 

His score did not matter, he knows. Todoroki was automatically accepted when Endeavor recommended him for the program.

 

“Congratulations on your first steps to becoming a hero!”

 

There was no need to show off in the exams. That was his grief and anger and confusion taking over, burning into rage and fueling the power that runs through his veins.

 

“-your first steps to becoming a hero!”

 

Endeavor reads the results over dinner and smiles with flames encircling too many teeth. Fuyumi sits in silence as Endeavor verbally congratulates himself on producing such an accomplished creation.

 

“-your first steps to becoming a hero!”

 

She sneaks into his room at midnight, interrupts him in the middle of an article on the history of political corruption in South America, and drags him into her room.

 

Todoroki lays on a thick comforter and listens to her sing a pop song completely off key and hears about her afternoon corralling dementia patients and lets her paint his nails in memory of their younger days.

 

He wakes up to sunlight glowing orange through his eyelid and a gold, sparkling manicure. He’s slept in and Fuyumi has long since left for her job.

 

Todoroki makes himself a bowl of granola and opens his laptop to finish his article.

 

“Congratulations on… becoming a hero!”


	8. Class

Eight: Class

 

Todoroki sways with the motion of the train in the hazy morning light. He disembarks, walks two blocks to the U.A. entrance, and blinks sleepily at the crowd of reporters.

 

He stayed up late reading about the symbolism of dingoes in the Maori culture. It takes a second for his brain to click from petroglyphs to paparazzi.

 

Ah, they’re here because of All Might.

 

Todoroki very pointedly does not think about legacies and usurpers and revenge and fire. He pushes through the crowd without a word despite the multiple calls of, “Todoroki! Endeavor’s son!” and walks through the gate.

 

He’s fifteen minutes early to homeroom. He is not the first one there.

 

There’s a desk in the back right of the room with pens neatly aligned on the surface but an empty seat. Across the room, a carbon copy of the hero Ingenium is politely, if loudly, asking a student to sit up straight in his seat. In the front, a girl with her hair pulled into a ponytail is nodding along to the tentative gestures of a boy with a tail.

 

Todoroki looks up at the seating chart. He walks to the very back and pulls a folded stack of papers from under his blazer. He unfolds them delicately, smoothes out the creases, and settles in to watch the next of his future peers enter the room.

 

Seven minutes before the start of class, the polite inquires of the Ingenium copy have crescendoed into a much more forceful conversation with the blond kid in the front. The majority of the class has filtered in, and hesitant greetings fill the room.

 

Four minutes before class, the blond kid stares the Ingenium copy right in the eyes and slowly tips back in his chair to rest his feet on the desk. There’s a brief moment of silence where onlookers look vaguely horrified and other students glance around puzzledly to find where all the noise went.

 

Then, chaos.

 

The Ingenium copy introduces himself in a fit of passionate fury, the kid with a lightening bolt dyed into his hair trips and falls flat on his face, the blond student starts ranting about ‘extras’ in a fit of self-satisfied rage, and the door slams open.

 

Todoroki thinks he hears the kid in front of him whisper, “what a mad banquet of darkness,” and snorts under his breath.

 

There’s more shouting, stammering, and harried introductions that Todoroki chooses to ignore in favor of skimming through his annotated chapter of The Great Influenza.

 

A rough voice breaks past the clamor to announce the entry of their teacher.

 

He’s-

 

He’s probably one of the most physically and mentally exhausted people Todoroki has ever seen. And he’s looked into a mirror before. And he’s been in two wars.

 

Aizawa-sensei introduces himself and Todoroki recognizes him. Eraserhead, a mostly nocturnal hero that deals with gang related crimes, underground trafficking, and vigilantes. He’s been called into the public eye once or twice for a high profile case, but mostly sticks to dirty work that doesn’t appeal to the masses.

 

Eraserhead is efficient, skilled, and adaptable. He does not fight for fame or money or ranking. He is the perfect hero.

 

Todoroki could think of a million better things Eraserhead could be doing instead of teaching baby heroes but then again, when he himself was put on jounin-sensei rotations, he thought the same thing. Then he got three kids and his entire world changed.

 

Aizawa-sensei tells them to put on gym clothes and proceed to the training grounds. Todoroki follows the boys in the class into the changing rooms.

 

He wedges himself in a corner and faces a wall while changing. It’s not self-consciousness, except for his face he’s never had trouble with his body. It’s more his hesitance to talk to people so early in the morning, without his clothes on, while they don’t have clothes on.

 

A kid with a green puff of hair takes of his shirt and the redhead next to him gasps.

 

“Whoa dude, you’re ripped,” he exclaims and suddenly eighteen sets of eyes are on the poor boy. The Ingenium copy, Iida he corrects himself, commands everyone to not stare at their changing classmates.

 

The lightening bolt kid who tripped earlier laughs and pokes the skinny kid with the weird elbows in the side, causing him to stumble into the boy with the tail.

 

There’s stammering and really bad jokes and giggles as the tall kid with six arms snags a shoulder on the inside of his gym uniform.

 

Todoroki takes a breath, pulls his skintight mask over the bottom of his face as he tugs his surgical mask off, and shrugs out of his shirt.

 

He winces as he feels eyes on his back. Todoroki knows what he looks like, he’s been a canvas of abuse for years. He’s suffered burns and bruises and a nasty stab wound while trying to adjust his knife skills to his size. His back is covered in shiny patches of skin that pull strangely with his movements, the product of Endeavor’s training and years of healing. He has a fist size knot of sickly green on his hip from a punch he couldn't dodge, a bandage on his right shoulder from almost dislocating it, a group of abrasions from where he fell on concrete.

 

He tugs his uniform on as quickly as possible, ignores the silence, and pulls off his eyepatch to shove it in his pocket.

 

While they walk to the training grounds, the blonde kid with the lightening bolt dyed into his hair leans over and asks a little too loudly, “Hey dude, what the fuck happened? You look like you got into a fight with a bear riding a wood chipper.”

 

The boy with the bird head sighs like he’s physically pained and the six-armed kid visibly winces. The red head looks like he’s about to pull lightening-hair away when Todoroki replies.

 

“Ah, that’s because I did,” he says and smiles with his eyes.

 

“What the fuck,” lightening-hair whispers.

 

Weird-elbows looks like he’s about to ask a question but shuts up when Aizawa-sensei announces the activity.

 

A Quirk Apprehension Test. Huh, Todoroki thinks, this will be interesting.

 

It is.

 

Iida wins the 50 meter dash using, and Todoroki will shit you not, engine legs. The pony-tail girl creates a fucking hydraulic press for the grip-strength test and he is still blown away by it as a girl who greatly resembles a frog easily jumps fifteen meters. Six-arms wins flexibility by shifting his hands into feet while resting his masked face on his knees, back completely flat. The long distance run finishes again with ponytail as she pulls a scooter out of her stomach and speeds ahead on it.

 

The final test, the ball toss, is won by a round-faced girl who throws a baseball into the stratosphere, so far it can no longer be registered by Aizawa-sensei’s app.

 

The results pop up, Todoroki has placed in second.

 

Given that he placed within the top three for all tests while his other classmates’ range of scores varied greatly depending on their specialty, he counts it as a win.

 

The green-haired kid from earlier cradles his broken finger while anger-issues charges him. Sensei intervenes and Todoroki gets to witness first hand the skill of Eraserhead. The conflict is somewhat forcefully resolved and Todoroki yawns under his mask as the class returns to the changing room.

 

This time when he’s stepping into his school uniform pants, weird-elbows points to the twisting scar across Todoroki’s right leg and asks how he got that one.

 

It's the product of twenty-five years of dependence on kunai getting shoved into a child with access to switchblades, limited supervision, and an extrinsic motivation to get stronger born of fear. It’s from too-small hands and too-small range and fumbling movements where muscle memory is completely absent.

 

Kakashi smiles a terribly sad and completely shit-eating grin under his mask. His working eye is folded into a perfect crescent.

 

“A disagreement with a swordfish,” he says. “It objected to my choice of dinner.”

\--

 

A week into school he finds himself sitting at a lunch table with Shouji, Satou, Kouda, and Tokoyami. He’s remembers no one moment where the five of them somehow ventured from strangers into that gray area of mostly-acquaintances, possibly-friends. It was more like a collection of interactions.

 

It started with Satou falling in step with him after the Quirk Apprehension Test and hesitantly asking if he was, really was, alright. When Todoroki shrugged, completely caught off guard, Satou twisted around to give a discrete thumbs up to Kouda.

 

Somehow, Todoroki is accompanied, completely by circumstance he is assured, to their next class with the two other boys on either side of him. Satou asks him about his previous school, favorite heroes, and experience during the exams. He isn't deterred by Todoroki’s stiff replies, and easily shifts to a one-sided conversation with Kouda about his weekend.

 

After Cementoss’s class on Modern Literature, Todoroki is interrupted by Shouji while putting his things away in his bag. The six-armed boy asks if he knows where Present Mic’s English class is.

 

He doesn’t. Tokoyami does though, and leads the two of them.

 

Todoroki watches Present Mic flash victory signs and pose and over enthusiastically introduce present participle tense. He follows the hero’s blonde hair as it sways and does not think about bowl cuts and shining teeth and casual back flips into conversation. He dutifully writes about past perfect participles and does not remember pie eating challenges and races around the village and karaoke in bars at three a.m. while a little more than slightly drunk.

 

He does not think about Gai, which is very hard if you have met the man. Todoroki instead bites the inside of his mouth and scrawls out verb meanings and presses the soles of his feet into the floor to remind himself that he is here, in a different universe, without chakra and taijutsu and his best friend.

 

He holds it together until he gets home. He scrolls through the hashtag 'Endeavor' and grins under his mask at really bad memes and pushes down the rising sensation of being choked.

 

Todoroki gets off the train and patiently walks the six blocks to his sprawling house in Shizuoka. He hangs up his jacket, walks past Fuyumi’s room where music is seeping out from under the door, and throws his uniform in a pile by his bed.

 

He strips, turns on the shower, and falls into rapid breaths and raging anxiety.

 

For twenty minutes, he rides out a panic attack in a ball on the floor of his shower. Then, he gets up, stands under the freezing water, and focuses on the way his chest moves with each inhalation.

 

Todoroki turns off the water when his teeth start chattering. He puts on a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt with the words ‘CASCADA WORLD TOUR’ on it and goes for a six-mile run. He does not think about war or sacrifices or people he would die for.

 

On Wednesday, Tokoyami finds him in the library, halfway through a cup of udon. They stare at each other before Shouji’s voice calls out from around the corner.

 

“Tokoyami, I thought you said we were going to go eat. Not to-”

 

Shouji walks in and spots them. The hand that was speaking shifts slowly back into a bud while another mouth on his other side turns to face Todoroki.

 

“Oh. Hello Todoroki, would you like to come with us to lunch?”

 

Todoroki starts to brush them off when he catches movement out of the corner of his eye. He pauses, discretely checks his peripherals to find nothing but shadows, and turns to look back at the pair.

 

Tokoyami looks like he’s trying to stare right into Todoroki’s skull.

 

“Um,” Todoroki starts, feeling slightly cornered. The shadows shift again.

 

Shouji glances at Tokoyami then back at Todoroki, face twisted like he wants to sigh.

 

“Yes?” Todoroki answers. Tokoyami nods with solemn finality. One of Shouji’s hands comes up to rub at his forehead.

 

“Did you have to look so threateningly?” The taller boy asks Tokoyami as Todoroki puts his books in his backpack.

 

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Tokoyami says, clearly having an idea what Shouji is talking about. “That is just what my face looks like.”

 

“What face?” Shouji retorts softly to Tokoyami’s back as the smaller boy quickens his steps to lead the trio.

 

They make it to a table in the corner of the lunchroom. It already has Satou and Kouda sitting at it, embroiled in a heated debate that involves Kouda rapidly flashing through sign language and Sato smacking the table to interject.

 

Todoroki catches the tail end of it, something about bugs and the difference between American and English animal documentaries, before Kouda sees him and quickly reverts back to his quiet, shy demeanor with a small wave.

 

He slides in next to Kouda and watches with vague amusement as Tokoyami, Satou, and Shouji are forced to scrunch together to fit in the booth.

 

Todoroki finds out that Satou brings meals from home because he needs to regulate his sugar intake for his quirk. If Satou accidently eats too much, his strength will grow at the cost of his brainpower, and he wants to get through his lessons today while actually retaining what is taught.

 

Todoroki learns that Satou and Kouda have known each other since elementary school, that the latter is extremely socially anxious unless a subject he is passionate about is brought up, which will lead to enthusiastic signing and sometimes even a few words.

 

Todoroki laughs silently when Kouda cracks a joke about octopi at Shouji’s expense. Kouda and Satou look at him in amazement, Kouda hurriedly twisting his hands into ‘you know sign?’ and Satou grinning like the sun. Shouji just looks incredibly confused.

 

The six-armed boy, he finds, likes to use a different bud on his arm for speaking to each person at the table. He can speak with two at once, though it’s much slower than his usual cadence, and he is ambidextrous. He also met Tokoyami during the entrance exam, and they have been in touch since.

 

Tokoyami is mostly quiet during lunch but comments when extremely dramatic situations are the main topic. Todoroki has heard no less than two pained sighs at the mention of Kaminari Denki and one ‘This is going to be a very not fun nightmare’ in reference to having anger-issues, also known as Bakugo Katsuki, in their class.

 

It’s-, It’s relaxing actually, to be able to sit with people, to be expected to sit with people. Todoroki goes from eating lunch in hallways and in libraries and from sitting randomly without care for the people surrounding him to a group that makes sure to keep a place open for him.

 

At the end of the week, on his train ride home, he scrolls through the news tagged 'Endeavor', trying to see if he has free time before night falls.

 

A message pops up over the timeline, a text from Shouji.

 

\--

4:28pm

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Shouji Mezou: Does anyone have the homework for math?

 

Satou Rikidou: yeah, pgs 231-232 #1-48 odd

 

Shouji Mezou: Thank you.

 

Satou Rikidou: np man B)

 

Satou Rikidou: @Tokoyami whats ur emoji?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: ?

 

Satou Rikidou: like I got B) kouda’s is (✿´‿`) whats urs?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: …

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I know exactly what you want me to write and I’m not going to do it

 

Shouji Mezou: ∑¬ >

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Stop

 

Satou Rikidou: I was thinking >:^(

 

Satou Rikidou: urs is better

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I’m being personally attacked

 

Kouda Kouji: lol

\--

 

Todoroki grins and sends a masked emoticon into the chat, spurring an argument on if Shouji and Todoroki should use the same emoji or not.

 

He arrives home to an empty house, smiling to himself as he takes off his uniform. Endeavor will not return until late tonight and he has a paper about the debate on vigilantes in modern times to read. Todoroki flops down on his bed, opens his laptop, and spends the rest of the afternoon infrequently commenting on the group chat while youtube videos on lightening storms load.

 

He is content.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters are going to start getting much longer now. I was trying to stick to my ten chapter estimate while writing this, but had too many ideas.


	9. U.S.J.

Nine: U.S.J.

 

The next week of class at U.A. is marked by their first hero exercise.

 

There are no more questions in the changing room. Todoroki peels off his shirt to reveal a new bandage wrapping around his middle, hiding a particularly nasty burn, and a trail of blue splotches from being kicked into a wall. There are eyes on his back, tracing the additions to his pale skin, but no one comments.

 

It's most likely because Shouji is standing next to him, maneuvering all six of his arms with powerful ease through his hero costume. It’s hard to not be intimidated by him and his broad shoulders and height. He looms over Todoroki’s side, close enough to cast a shadow on him, and asks about his weekend in a soft voice.

 

Todoroki responds with single sentences and hums as he changes into his outfit. Satou, on his other side, picks up the thread of conversation and tells a long-winded story about his two brothers finding a sparrow nest that had blown out of a tree.

 

Tokoyami joins in after a few Satou’s friendly jibes about the smaller boy coming over to reclaim his children. There’s laughter and Tokoyami’s death glare and Kouda’s signed explanations on how to use a syringe to feed fledglings and Todoroki allows himself to ignore the side-glances at his injuries.

 

He’s paired up with Shouji, who solemnly reaches out a hand for a fist bump. Todoroki reciprocates the gestures, then lays out a plan to capture the missile.

 

Shouji spreads his arms to catch as much sound as possible and transforms three of his buds into ears.

 

“Movement on the fifth floor, vibrations following a set pattern. Movement on the stairwell, going down the stairs but occasionally stopping at the windows facing our position. The former is most likely Ojirou, pacing in front of the missile, while the latter is Hagakure headed our way.”

 

“Hm,” Todoroki pauses. “You can track Hagakure by movement?”

 

Shouji nods.

 

“Alright, you engage her. Try to keep her away from the fifth floor but focus on securing her as quickly as possible. I’ll take fifth floor. Radio if you are captured.”

 

“Prioritize the missile,” Shouji says.

 

“Got it,” Todoroki replies. “Sync.”

 

“Sync.”

 

Todoroki walks out of the stairwell’s line of sight and creates an ice pillar to the fifth floor, riding it to the closest window.

 

There’s a gasp on the other line, chatter from the viewing room. A student murmurs, “That’s the most I’ve ever heard him say.”

 

He melts through the glass pane to minimize shrapnel into the room and steps off his pillar in a smooth movement.

 

Ojirou’s waiting for him, just where Shouji said he’d be. The boy steps in front of the missile, falls into a defensive stance, and waits for Torodoki’s first move.

 

It’s a good idea in practice. Todoroki is an unknown. The extent of his quirk besides his family name is a complete mystery to most of the class.

 

It’s not a good idea against Todoroki.

 

He sweeps his right foot in an arc, sending a stream of ice towards the missile and encasing it.

 

Threat temporarily neutralized.

 

Ojirou does not risk a glance at the missile, instead charging Todoroki with the assumption that his quirk is more effective long range.

 

A blast of fire shoots through the air above Ojirou’s head, making him drop to the ground. Unfortunately for him, the patch of concrete he tried to land on is covered in ice.

 

He slips, tries to stop his momentum sideways with his tail, and falls flat on the ground as that appendage is trapped in ice.

 

Todoroki approaches the other boy as Ojirou tries to kick his tail free from the block of ice. Ojirou throws a punch from his restrained position, swinging out a leg for a vicious, if sloppy, follow-through.

 

Todoroki has spent twenty-five years in a war fought with knives and jutsu and martial arts. He’s the Commander of the Jounin Forces, one of the most feared Anbu, and the Hokage of Konoha. He has twenty-five years of combat experience on top of twelve years of training in this universe.

 

He catches Ojirou’s punch, twists his arm, and puts the boy in a headlock. The following kick is stopped with a forearm. Todoroki casually ties Ojirou’s hands together as the boy tries to wriggle out of the hold.

 

“Enemy neutralized, proceeding to goal.”

 

Shouji grunts in acknowledgement and over the connection Todoroki hears a shrill, “Screw you octo-man!” from Hagakure.

 

Todoroki walks over and pushes his hand through the ice around to missile to touch it.

 

“Congratulations Team B! Please free your opponents and proceed to the gates,” All Might’s voice booms through the ear pierce.

 

They set the record for fastest completion in the end, with six and a half minutes. Anger-issues almost kills a kid and small-all-might breaks another limb. Shouji fist bumps Todoroki again and Satou slings an arm around both of their shoulders. Kouda gives them a thumbs up and a small grin.

 

Tokoyami stares regally up at the four of them, projecting an air of faint superiority despite being the smallest in the group. Kouda nudges him expectantly in the side.

 

“That was an effective takedown. Good job,” he says and turns with a swish of his cloak.

 

“Oh my god,” Satou whispers. “I think that’s the least emo thing he has ever said to us.”

 

Kouda giggles. Todoroki glances up at Shouji to see him staring at Tokoyami’s retreating back.

 

“If you’re going to cry, please don’t do it on me,” Todoroki tells the taller boy.

 

One of Shouji’s hands lands in the wild silver puff of Todoroki’s hair. He flinches as Shouji’s knuckles dig into his scalp.

 

Satou laughs loudly and pulls them out of the viewing room.

\--

 

9:46pm

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Satou Rikidou: what r we supposed to bring to USJ tmrw?

 

Satou Rikidou: also @Tokoyami, the bb birds say hi B)

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I can and will make your death look like an accident

 

Kouda Kouji: lmao

 

Shouji Mezou: I couldn’t hear Aizawa-sensei.

 

Satou Rikidou: oh yeah, u sit nxt to anger-issues

 

Satou Rikidou: my condolences man

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: God I wish that were me

 

Kouda Kouji: ?

 

Satou Rikidou: u wanna sit nxt to bakugou?

 

Shouji Mezou: Oh shit, I completely forgot.

 

Shouji Mezou: I am so sorry for your loss.

 

Kouda Kouji: wtf?

 

Shouji Mezou: He sits next to Mineta.

 

Kouda Kouji: fyl ( ͡ᶢ ͜ʖ ͡ᶢ)

 

Satou Rikidou: fuuuuuuuck, that sucks B(

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I crave the sweet release of death

 

Satou Rikidou: im praying 4 u

 

Kouda Kouji:｡*ﾟ+.*.｡(っ ͡° ل ͡°)っ✂

 

Kouda Kouji: me omw to save u

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Thanks

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I couldn’t hear sensei either @Todoroki

 

Todoroki Shouto: yo

 

Satou Rikidou: lmao u had to summon him

 

Kouda Kouji: cryptid ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆)

 

Satou Rikidou: ^^^^ FUCK

 

Todoroki Shouto: lunch, hero outfit, bottle of water, sunscreen, change of clothes

 

Satou Rikidou: bless u

 

Satou Rikidou: my boy todoroki pulls thru

 

Shouji Mezou: Thank you.

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Through my agony, hope springs

 

Kouda Kouji: thx

 

 

12:59am

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Satou Rikidou: fr tho guys, if u were a cryptid who wld u b

 

\--

 

The trip to the Unforseen Simulation Joint arc starts bad and gets worse.

 

Breakfast consisted of an announcement from Endeavor that the family, at least the members currently outside the psychiatric ward, were going to have a dinner Saturday night to celebrate Shouto’s entrance into U.A. and position as the top student.

 

Fuyumi had paled. Shouto had looked into Endeavor’s eyes, face completely blank, and thought about revenge and burns and knives to the face.

 

Endeavor smiled with too many teeth and Fuyumi made excuses to stumble out of the house and Shouto looked at Endeavor’s, at his father’s, face and felt nothing but annoyance.

 

He had planned to watch a livestream of India’s Parliament debate on nuclear disarmament. However, Endeavor’s word was law. Shouto would attend a family dinner and answer the questions of a man bent on making him a weapon and suffer the pity of his siblings.

 

Shouto nodded once, put away his dishes, and walked out of the house into a rainstorm.

 

He chose not to return for an umbrella.

 

When he arrives at U.A., Todoroki lets smoke bleed from his left side as he manually dries his uniform. His hair ends up messier than usual as it frizzes in the humidity.

 

One of Shouji’s large hands comes out of nowhere and plops down on the top of his head to try to smooth the mass of fluff out. Todoroki rolls his eyes up to tiredly stare at the taller boy. Shouji’s mask twitches as if he is trying not to grin.

 

On the bus to the U.S.J., Tokoyami huddles closer and closer into Todoroki’s left side in response to the freezing air-condition. Kouda watches Satou’s head bob up and down as he keeps dozing off and waking up. A conversation begins about Midoriya’s Quirk and Anger-issues starts yelling.

 

They arrive and meet No. 13. There’s an exchange between Aizawa-sensei and 13 about All Might. No. 13 holds up three fingers and Todoroki feels cold.

 

Todoroki knows something is wrong with All Might. He is a genius and while All Might’s PR team is very thorough, there are incidents that slip through their fine-toothed combs.

 

Todoroki knows All Might has been cutting down his public appearances, that there is less news coverage on his heroics, and that the rare fight he has against a high-profile villain lasts longer than it did six years ago.

 

Todoroki has noticed the way the man twists his left side away from punches while not hesitating to take hits on his right. He has trawled through files of footage on sites he needs a tor for. He has found grimy screenshots of All Might’s face taken from a distance, barely decipherable after lossy comprehension has taken its toll on resolution.

 

No. 13 holds up three fingers and Todoroki knows not to expect All Might.

 

Kouda pokes Satou in the side when he starts to fall asleep standing up. Shouji huffs under breath and murmurs something to Tokoyami. Todoroki glances around at the sprawling facility they will be practicing in and feels distant excitement.

 

A portal tears through the middle of the U.S.J. with a pop of displaced air and a screech rings out as the lights lining the walls of the dome explode into flurries of glass.

 

People pour out, villains pour out with misplaced hate and destructive quirks and rage boiling in their bones.

 

All hell breaks loose.

 

Anger-issues and shark-teeth interrupt No. 13’s attack to throw themselves at the portal wielding villain. Todoroki is forcibly picked up and, in a movement that feels nothing like a shunshin, nothing like his sensei’s hiraishin, and is dropped on a cliff.

 

Landslide simulation he thinks.

 

Todoroki’s head whips around, searching for his classmates, his friends.

 

No one is there.

 

“Um, what the hell?” A voice says behind him.

 

Todoroki turns, feet settling in a defensive stance and blade in his hand. He looks around. The sight of rocks and various debris greet him.

 

“I’m invisible, idiot.”

 

He looks down at the ground. Two invisible feet make small indentation in the ground. It’s Hagakure.

 

“Ah,” Todoroki replies and relaxes. “Let’s regroup with the others and find out what is going on.”

 

“No shit,” Hagakure says and there’s just the sound of shifting rocks under foot as she beings picking her way down the mountain.

 

They are halfway down when twenty villains surround them.

 

“Fuck,” Hagakure whispers.

 

There are threats and insults and mentions of killing the number two hero’s son. None of the horde notice Hagakure as she edges through the circle closing in on Todoroki. They stalk forward, quirks bristling and ready to attack.

 

It’s twenty against one. Twenty unidentified quirks against one that has been broadcasted on television. Twenty adults versus a teenager armed with a Ka-Bar and his wits and the legacies of his parents.

 

Todoroki is not worried. He has faced worse odds.

 

Tension flows out of his body with a single exhale. He breathes in, settles himself, and drops into a ready stance to wait.

 

They laugh and taunt and inch closer towards him. Twenty-five feet, twenty, fifteen, ten, eight-

 

He attacks with no warning, ice shooting from his feet to encase the feet of the group. They jerk to a halt, arms pinwheeling to not fall over. The villains look up at him, spines and quills and jets of water already leaving their body to attack him, to see an empty space where he used to be.

 

Todoroki finishes cocooning them in ice from his position outside of the circle by Hagakure. Right before he covers the face of one of the weaker looking members, he steps into the man’s line of sight and asks, “What is the attacker’s goal?”

 

“Fuck you,” the villain spits, clearly trying defiance on for the first time in his life.

 

Todoroki stares at the man with very tired eyes and holds up his knife.

 

“I’ll ask again, what is the attacker’s goal?”

 

The villain licks his lips, shivers against his icy prison, and darts his gaze between Todoroki and the Ka-Bar. He hesitates, seems to weigh his pay for this job against an exhausted child with a knife, and decides to spill everything.

 

Hagakure helps Todoroki handcuff the knocked out villains four minutes later. She can easily carry one of the larger guys all by herself. Todoroki wonders what else she’s hiding under her invisibility.

 

They ride down the rest of the mountain on a slope of ice, leaving the pile of villains for someone else to deal with. At the bottom, they see All Might wrestling with a strange, beaked monster.

 

The hero moves to suplex it. A portal rips below them and in a twist of physics, the monster grabs onto All Might’s left side, his weak side, and digs talons into it.

 

Todoroki acts without thinking, barely listening to Hagakure’s gasp or Midoriya’s scream (so he knows too, this secret of All Might). Todoroki sends a mountain of ice to the fighting pair, freezing the monster’s limbs solid and watching them crack and fall off from frostbite.

 

All Might is free. The monster starts to regenerate.

 

Todoroki knows immortal beings. He has fought enough to figure out weaknesses in their regeneration, flaws in their perfect shields. Todoroki has survived a war against gods, against ghosts and demons and things that should not exist.

 

Todoroki sees the monster regenerate and does the obvious thing. He goes for the head.

 

It falls off and smashes into tiny slivers of ice. Todoroki stands over the body, out of range but close enough to check for signs of rapidly duplicating cells.

 

A knot of red starts bubbling up, swelling into what could become a head.

 

Todoroki pulls a fireball from the air, lets it sink towards his left hand until his skin starts to burn from the heat.

 

It glows blue and the ice around him starts to steam. Todoroki throws the fireball at the monster’s neck, instantly cauterizing it.

 

All that’s left of the upper shoulders of the creature in front of him is charred skin and burnt bone. The air smells like the war fields where he was promoted to chuunin, burning flesh and raw meat.

 

Todoroki looks up. Everyone is staring at him. Someone chokes on bile.

 

The man with hands covering his body is the first to do anything. He looks a the burnt body of the monster like his world has crumbled, starts hyperventilating, and charges Todoroki with a scream.

 

A lot of things happen at once.

 

Todoroki sweeps up a wall of ice to protect himself, All Might sprints from his position clutching his wounded side to block the man, and a portal opens up.

 

The man covered in hands disappears, still shrieking like the world is ending. The sound seems to carry even after the portal closes. It echoes around the silent interior of the U.S.J.

 

The portal villain speaks next.

 

“Well, I do believe that is enough for today. We will return.”

 

He adjusts his shirt cuff and steps through another portal. Todoroki catches a glimpse of a bar, a ripped poster, and a hole punched into the wall that looks recent.

 

All Might turns to Todoroki just as anger-issues and shark-teeth show up. Anger-issues immediately starts yelling about fights and ‘shitty fucking villains’. Shark-teeth just stares at the body in front of them with wide eyes.

 

“Boys,” All Might begins, “Could you please take Aizawa-sensei to the exit. He is in need of emergency medical aid.”

 

“But the villains!” Hagakure protests from next to Todoroki. Everyone in the group flinches, obviously having forgotten that she was there. “There’s still a lot of them right by the stairs.”

 

A screech interrupts her. An eardrum-damaging exclamation flows down the stairs and into the pack of villains Hagakure was referencing. They fall back from the force of it, clutching their heads and moaning in pain.

 

“It looks like Present Mic is here! No need to worry about villains now. Quickly children, help Aizawa-sensei!”

 

Frog-girl and Hagakure lift Aizawa-sensei up, and with an escort of shark-teeth and anger-issues, start walking towards the stairs.

 

All Might coughs wetly into his hand. Todoroki looks up at the hero.

 

“Todoroki my boy, I am sorry you had to do this. I know you wanted to help, but next time let me handle villains like this,” All Might says.

 

Todoroki wants to tell All Might a lot of things. He wants to say ‘You could not handle it on your own’ and ‘it’s okay to ask for help’ and ‘no man is perfect’ and ‘I know something is wrong’.

 

He wants to tell the hero, the number one hero in the world, about burns and fire circling a smile with too many teeth and knives slashing towards his face and dead silent dinners.

 

Todoroki wants to spill his heart out to this man he is both older and younger than. He wants to reveal panic attacks on the bathroom floor and siblings who pity him and the pain of trying to move past loss. He wants to talk about bruises and a tiny room in a psychiatric ward and revenge and the terrible weight of legacies.

 

“Alright,” Todoroki replies and turns around. He allows All Might his privacy, lets the man smear the stripes of blood from his hand on his shirt, lets him talk to Midoriya without observers.

 

Todoroki leads a group of policemen to the villains he zip tied and answers questions with single sentences. He has gone through enough mission debriefs to make his replies short and succinct.

 

He walks past cameramen and avoids eye contact on the train ride home. His sister is waiting at the front door of their house, staring worriedly at him as he walks through the front gate at a steady pace.

 

She asks if he’s all right. He is. She pushes him in the shower and does all his laundry in a fit of anxiety. When he gets out he changes into a pair of shorts and a shirt with a picture of a wave on it over the words ‘SHARK AND CROW CLUB 2004’.

 

Fuyumi paints his nails silver and plays really shitty pop music from her computer and tells him about the latest illegal cigarette ring busted at the nursing home.

 

He checks it phone when it chimes.

 

\--

7:08pm

**Three Tall Boys (and two small ones)**

 

Shouji Mezou: Sound off guys. Is everyone okay?

 

Kouda Kouji: ok

 

Satou Rikidou: ^^

 

Satou Rikidou: bit messed up abt it but im fine

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I am alright

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Kouda and I successfully restrained our group of villains

 

Shouji Mezou: @Todoroki Are you alright?

 

Satou Rikidou: where did u get teleported? me and shouji were with 13

 

Satou Rikidou: oh shit how is todoroki

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: @Todoroki Please update us

 

Todoroki Shouto: im fine. i was in the landslide zone with hagakure

 

Kouda Kouji: u ok?

 

Satou Rikidou: yeah I saw u w All Might at the end

 

Todoroki Shouto: i am ok. no injuries. we captured our villains and tried to return

 

Shouji Mezou: @Tokoyami and Kouda, where were you teleported to?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Downpour Storm Zone

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: It was… very wet

 

Satou Rikidou: lmao I bet

 

Shouji Mezou: Todoroki, we saw your fight with the noumu from the entrance.

 

Shouji Mezou: Do you want to talk about it?

 

Satou Rikidou: u don't have to if u don't want to

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: What happened?

 

Kouda Kouji: ^^^

 

Todoroki Shouto: i saw all might grappling with unidentified villain and took the initiative

 

Satou Rikidou: what he means is

 

Satou Rikidou: and I s2g im not making this up

 

Satou Rikidou: todobro saw All Might getting stabbed by the noumu

 

Satou Rikidou: and the mad man decides to fly in

 

Satou Rikidou: move bitch get out the way style

 

Satou Rikidou: and fight the thing fuckin supplexing All Might

 

Tokoyami Fumikage:…

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Todoroki Shouto

 

Todoroki Shouto: ?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I am never letting you out of my sight again

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: What the _fuck_ possessed you to do that

 

Kouda Kouji: ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆)

 

Kouda Kouji: holy shit

 

Satou Rikidou: go off tokoyami omg

 

Shouji Mezou: Tokoyami…

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: You could have died?! What the FUCK were you thinking?

 

Satou Rikidou: koudas out here like ┬┴┬┴┤ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)├┬┴┬┴

 

Kouda Kouji: tru

 

Todoroki Shouto: i was fine

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: That’s not the point!

 

Shouji Mezou: To be honest it was kind of terrifying.

 

Todoroki Shouto: thank you for worrying?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I’m going to fucking scream

 

Shouji Mezou: At least he knows now not to do that?

 

Satou Rikidou: lmao prob not

 

Kouda Kouji: ?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: ???

 

Satou Rikidou: best part was he 360 no scoped that fucker lol

 

Satou Rikidou: like took him tf out, kod mortal kombat style

 

Shouji Mezou: Are you saying,

 

Shouji Mezou: Todoroki stole All Might’s kill?

 

Satou Rikidou: FUKC

 

Satou Rikidou: holy shit koudas choking on his spit

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I hate this fucking family

 

Todoroki Shouto: thanks. love you too

 

Kouda Kouji: lmaooooooo

 

Satou Rikidou: im fucking dying

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: You will be if you keep this up

 

Todoroki Shouto: (▀ ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Shouji Mezo: What’s the black spot?

 

Todoroki Shouto: eyepatch

 

Shouji Mezou: Wrong eye.

 

Todoroki Shouto: ͡° ͜ʖ ͡ - ?

 

Shouji Mezou: That’s a wink.

 

Satou Rikidou: y does he only reply to convos abt emojis

 

Kouda Kouji: cryptid

 

Satou Rikidou: ok fr tho guys wld u fuck mothman

 

 

11:46

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Satou Rikidou: y does no one ever answer that question?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Shut up and go to sleep Satou

 

\--

 

The rest of the week is a blur of paparazzi, concerned looks from adults, and Fuyumi’s obvious anxiety as Saturday approaches.

 

Akano arrived first the night of the family dinner. He pulled up the driveway in a beat up car and greeted Fuyumi at the door with obvious bags under his eyes.

 

Shouto stood behind Fuyumi and overheard their hushed conversation.

 

“He here yet?”

 

“No. He’s finishing up at the office.”

 

Akano ruffles Shouto’s hair after hanging up his coat. He doesn’t ask about grades or teachers or the path to becoming a hero. Shouto’s is distantly grateful.

 

Instead, as Shouto’s phone chimes for the seventh time in five minutes, he asks about friends.

 

Shouto’s turns notifications off, ignoring Satou’s rant about snack packages missing nutrient labels, and shoves his phone back in his pocket.

 

“I have four,” he tells Akano.

 

Akano looks profoundly happy and a little bit sad for some reason. “I’m so proud of you, Shouto.”

 

Fuyumi takes over the conversation until Michio arrives, dripping wet under the sudden downpour.

 

He too walks in silently. “Is he here?”

 

Fuyumi shakes her head, motioning him inside.

 

Akano presses a palm to Michio’s soaked hair and dries it with his quirk. They do not talk about Michio’s automatic flinch in response to the heat or Akano’s pained face when he uses his fire. They do not talk about Shouto’s silence or Fuyumi’s darting glances to the door or the stifling air of their childhood home.

 

They sit at the dining room table and do not talk about a lot of things.

 

Instead, there are questions about Fuyumi’s hospital and Akano’s IT job and Michio’s college experience. Shouto is particularly interested in the latter, even though he knows he will never have it.

 

They talk about these things because they know they will not get to when Endeavor arrives.

 

There is quiet laughter and reminiscing about when they all lived together and truly terrible puns.

 

The front door slams open. The house falls silent.

 

Shouto watches Endeavor move so easily, so smoothly in a house blanketed by fear, built on fear. He watches his father pass plates around with confidence belaying his every motion. He sees a smile with too many teeth surrounded by flame.

 

Shouto watches his siblings start when Endeavor’s voice grows too loud and constantly keep him in their peripherals. He watches them fold into themselves, forget that they have escaped this hell hole through jobs and apartments across town. He sees an old memory of a silver haired woman who carried herself with the same tenseness of a man held up over searing coals.

 

Endeavor tells them about Shouto’s test scores and practical exams and his success at the U.S.J. His siblings look horrified when the death of the noumu is mentioned. Endeavor radiates vicious pride.

 

They are almost finished, almost through with that hellhole when everything grinds to a halt. Shouto is almost free to retreat to his livestream and his siblings are visibly watching the clock and counting down the minutes until they get to disappear from the awful, oppressive air of their childhood home.

 

They are almost free when Endeavor sets down his cup of sake, turns to look Shouto in the eyes, and asks in a too loud voice from a smile with too many teeth, “So Shouto, any girls in your class?”

 

His siblings freeze. They stare wide-eyed at him, lost in the haze of forced marriages and revenge and the terrible weight of legacies.

 

Shouto remembers for the thousandth time that he is the only one in this family who is not afraid of his father.

 

He looks at Endeavor, stares at too large grin encircled by flame, and does not hate him. The man does not deserve that.

 

Instead, there is annoyance, a well of anger that has grown with every flinch and hushed tone and tear shed by his siblings.

 

Shouto can ignore what the man does to him. Shouto is used to it. Shouto has had worse.

 

His siblings however, have never witnessed violence like he has, will never witness it in Shouto’s life. They should not have to face this man, bear this scar upon their childhood.

 

Shouto looks at Endeavor with distaste hidden behind exhaustion and boredom and a facemask.

 

“There are six girls in my class,” he says.

 

Akano chokes. Michio looks like he wants to be anywhere else. Fuyumi’s terror blankets the room.

 

Endeavor laughs, too loud and too long with too many teeth. “No,” he shakes his head, “not like that. Any girls you are interested in?”

 

Shouto would love to prolong this, tease out more direct questions by faking obliviousness, but he watches his sibling's rapidly growing fear and decides to cut this interaction short for them.

 

“Ah. No, I do not.” Shouto stares into Endeavor’s face with one working eye and the solemn strength of a dictator who commanded a country through the most destructive war his universe witnessed. “I'm gay.”

 

Fuyumi lets out a tiny sob. It seems to take up the entire room.

 

Then, everything becomes very loud.

 

There are words and violence and tears and Shouto ends his night staring up at the stars.

 

It is funny, he thinks as he traces constellations that do not exist, the differences between these worlds.

 

The rain stopped sometime during dinner and this neighborhood on the outskirts of the Shizuoka Prefecture hums with cricket song and the sound of the breeze through tall grass.

 

There’s a stinging handprint on the left side of Shouto’s face. He is in the clothes he wore to dinner and holes mottle the side of his shirt where fire burned through his sleeve.

 

He is three miles from his house. The sky balloons out above him, endless and vast and full of possibility.

 

Everything is silent.

 

His phone buzzes.

 

Shouto frowns. He thought he turned notifications off.

 

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it.

 

_13 Unread Messages_

 

10:51pm

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Satou Rikidou: kouda made me a fucking friendship bracelet

 

Satou Rikidou: it has all my fave colors im gonna cry

 

Kouda Kouji: lol

 

Shouji Mezou: Are you guys having a sleepover?

 

Kouda Kouji: ya hbu

 

Shouji Mezou: I’m finishing a paper for Midnight’s class.

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Reorganizing my playlists

 

Satou Rikidou: @Tokoyami link me?

 

Shouji Mezou: You should not ask for things you do not know the extent of.

 

Kouda Kouji: lmaooo

 

Satou Rikidou: how emo can it be?

 

Shouji Mezou: ...

 

Shouji Mezou: You should not ask questions you do not want the answers to.

 

-

 

Shouto hesitates, thumbs poised over the keypad. He types out a sentence once, twice, three times.

 

He looks up again at the empty sky and the dark neighborhood surrounding him, wrapping him in a shell of solitude and peace.

 

Shouto breathes in, holds air in his lungs for seven seconds before slowly letting it out.

 

He writes out the message a fourth time, closes his eyes, and presses send.

 

-

10:52pm

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Todoroki Shouto: can i stay over someones house tonight?

 

-

 

The reply is almost instantaneous.

 

-

 

Satou Rikidou: hell yeah dude, mega sleepover

 

Satou Rikidou: ill msg u my address, kouda already started a bracelet for u

 

-

 

Shouto smiles under his mask.

 

-

 

Todoroki Shouto: thank you. i really appreciate it

 

Satou Rikidou: anytime B)

 

Kouda Kouji: np : )

 

Shouji Mezou: Are you okay?

 

Todoroki Shouto: yeah

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Let me know if you need anything

 

Todoroki Shouto: ok

 

Todoroki Shouto: thank you

-

 

He falls asleep on Satou’s guest bed with the background noise of two boys snoring. He dreams about hair like the sun and feathers and bowl cuts and camaraderie and really bad emojis.

 

He is content.


	10. Tournament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is almost 12 thousand words. It took me a week to finish. Worth it.

Ten: Tournament

 

The doorbell to Satou’s house rings at ten a.m. Todoroki answers it in the clothes he slept in, the burn mottled shirt he survived dinner in and a pair of Satou’s sweatpants that are trying to slip off his hips.

 

Standing on the porch are Tokoyami and Shouji.

 

Shouji holds up a grocery bag of gummy worms and chocolate bars. “We brought snacks.”

 

Todoroki blinks sleepily and moves to the side, allowing them to step inside. Satou comes out from the kitchen in an apron and basketball shorts to wave.

 

“Oh shit, it’s a party now,” he says and slings an arm over Tokoyami’s shoulder. “I’m making pancakes.”

 

They sit around a battered wooden table with stick figures carved into it. There’s a pencil drawing of a child’s interpretation of a dog on the wall and piles of cookbooks litter the counters. A window is cracked to vent the heat from the stove. Outside, Todoroki can hear cars passing through the alley.

 

Kouda stumbles downstairs wearing fox-patterned pajamas and a sweatshirt with the slogan ‘VARSITY DOGWALKERS’ plastered on it. He signs ‘goodmorning’ at Shouji and Todoroki and rests his chin on Satou’s shoulder to see the progress of the pancakes.

 

Satou elbows him in the stomach and makes grabby hands at Todoroki.

 

“Hey, can you pass me my phone? I got the perfect music.” He says.

 

Todoroki hands over a beat up phone with a picture of Satou’s family printed on the back. Satou flips a pancake with one hand while he scrolls through his music, eventually lighting up when he finds something he likes.

 

“If you play country music again, no one will find your body,” Tokoyami states with a dead look in his eyes.

 

Shouji sighs and plants a hand in Tokoyami’s feathers. “Shh,” he says and passes the smaller boy a Snickers. “Eat a snack.”

 

Todoroki snorts as Tokoyami unwraps the candy bar sullenly.

 

“Don't worry Tokobro, I got some stuff I think you’ll like,” Satou says with a grin that's a touch too mischievous to be innocent.

 

“Oh no,” Kouda whispers.

 

Satou clicks on a song, sets his phone down, and yells ‘yolo’ at the top of his lungs.

 

Taylor Swift blares from the speakers. The heavy kicks of ‘Shake It Off’ reverberate through the morning air.

 

“This one,” Satou shouts over the music, “Is for you, Fumikage!”

 

“Wait is this from his ‘I’m Not Happy I Swear Mom’ playlist?” Shouji asks. “I thought he deleted that.”

 

Kouda signs something. Todoroki leans forward to interpret, grabbing a pack of Swedish fish as he does. “Kouda says it took thirty minutes of scrolling.”

 

They look at Tokoyami. He is calmly chewing on his candy bar and staring at Satou as the other boy drops into a squat on the beat and pops up to flip a pancake onto a plate. Satou's singing along, shaking his head enthusiastically.

 

“I’ll kill him when he’s done,” Tokoyami states. “For now, we get dinner and a show.”

 

“Breakfast,” Shouji corrects. “And is that something All Might would like to hear you say?”

 

Tokoyami grumbles and crushes his wrapper into a ball to toss at Satou. “Fine,” he allows. “I’ll just maim him.”

 

Kouda giggles and faces to Todoroki to tell him a story about a giant snails. Todoroki nods along, fishing gummy candies from a bag and pulling up the bottom of his facemask to eat them.

 

He misses Shouji and Tokoyami share a worried look when he turns head to reveal the purpling mark on the side of his face. He misses Satou make texting gestures at Shouji and Tokoyami, promising to message them about it later. He watches Kouda flap his hands in excitement over the rivers in South America.

 

Satou serves pancakes and stares in horror as Shouji rips up gummy worms to sprinkle over his serving.

 

Todoroki eats bites of pancake and grins when Shouji finally relents to Kouda’s friendly teasing and pulls his mask down to stick his tongue out. Tokoyami absently bobs his head to Beyoncé and listens with one ear to the conversation as he scrolls through his twitter feed.

 

Todoroki is content.

-

 

11:28am

Satou Rikidou _created_ **Concerned Friends Part IV**

 

Satou Rikidou _invited_ Kouda Kouji, Tokoyami Fumikage, _and_ Shouji Mezou

 

Satou Rikidou: idk y we keep deleting this chat

 

Kouda Kouji: tbh

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: What the fuck happened last night

 

Shouji Mezou: Is he okay? Did he say anything to you guys?

 

Satou Rikidou: I

 

Satou Rikidou: I don't know

 

Satou Rikidou: he came in at 11:40 and it looked like he walked here

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: That’s four miles

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Please tell me he didn’t walk four miles at night

 

Kouda Kouji: he did

 

Satou Rikidou: he knocked on the door last night and I opened it and he just had this giant red mark on his face

 

Shouji Mezou: That was the bruise from today, yes?

 

Kouda Kouji: yes

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Did you ask him what happened?

 

Satou Rikidou: this morning I did

 

Satou Rikidou: I just couldn't last night, I was trying to distract him

 

Kouda Kouji: he looked sad

 

Satou Rikidou: not sad, more like empty?

 

Satou Rikidou: like the face after USJ

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Fuck

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Did he tell you in the morning?

 

Satou Rikidou: he said his dad kicked him out

 

Shouji Mezou: Endeavor?

 

Satou Rikidou: yeah

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Is he staying with you tonight? I can invite him over

 

Satou Rikidou: good idea

 

Satou Rikidou: could u ask him more abt it

 

Shouji Mezou: Do you think this is related to his usual injuries?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: …

 

Satou Rikidou: .

 

Sataou Rikidou: fuck I didn't even think abt that

 

Shouji Mezou: Fumikage, you talk to him tonight. Let’s hope not but just in case, I can get Aizawa-sensei’s number.

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Okay

 

Satou Rikidou: thanks u guys, love u

 

Shouji Mezou: We love and appreciate you too, Rikidou.

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Thank you Satou

 

Kouda Kouji: <3

 

-

 

Shouto returns to his house when Fuyumi messages him that Endeavor has left. She’s standing at the door when he opens the gate to the front yard.

 

When she sees him, she bursts into tears.

 

“I am so sorry, Shouto, I just-, he-, I couldn’t-”

 

She’s hugging him, tears and snot staining the shoulder of his dress shirt. He realizes that he is taller than her now.

 

Shouto brings a hand up and puts it on the back of her head, cupping strands of white in red in a palm. Fire and ice, he thinks, and the terrible weight of legacy.

 

They stand there until Fuyumi cries herself out. His shirt is soaked now but Shouto doesn’t mind. It’s already unsalvageable with the burnt sleeves and rips from stumbling into a rose bush last night. He holds his older sister and rubs her back and thinks about fire and revenge and a household smothered in fear.

 

“Hey,” he says. “It’s okay.”

 

She shakes her head in his shoulder, sobbing out “No it isn’t!”

 

“It’s okay,” he repeats. “It’s gonna be fine. Do you trust me?”

 

Fuyumi nods, shoulders twitching with a hiccup.

 

“You need to grab some of your stuff and leave. I know you have friends you can stay with until you find an apartment. You are going to be okay, you just need to get out of here for a while.”

 

She shakes her head, “What about you?”

 

“I’m gonna be alright. I’ll stay at the U.A. dorms, pass it off as an opportunity to train more.”

 

He puts a hand on her shoulder, shakes it slightly. “Hey, you are going to be fine. He’s not going to follow you. You are going to be safe.”

 

Fuyumi lets out another sob and hiccups at the end of it, coughing as she chokes on her spit. Shouto pulls up the front of his shirt and offers it to her to blow her nose on.

 

She does and wipes her face on it too. Then she stares at him, eyes blurry and nose bright red. A watery smile spread across her face and she pulls him again for a hug, smearing tears and snot and grass stains between the two of them.

 

It’s cold and wet and uncomfortable. Shouto hangs in his sister’s hug and feels gut-wrenching love for her. He pats her back and reassures her and allows her to decide when to let go.

 

“Thank you,” she whispers.

 

He smiles under his facemask.

 

\--

2:13pm

**Three Tall Boys (and two short ones)**

 

Todoroki Shouto: i am going to talk to a teacher about living in the ua dorms

 

Satou Rikidou: good!!!

 

Satou Rikidou: if u need tho, u can come over again. My bros loved u

 

Todoroki Shouto: thank you

 

Satou Rikidou: anytime b B)

 

Kouda Kouji: ( ͡°з ͡°) <3

 

Todoroki Shouto: i am trying to decide who to talk to though

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Which teacher do you feel most comfortable with?

 

Shouji Mezou: When I needed to discuss housing with U.A., I spoke to Aizawa-sensei.

 

Satou Rikidou: u needed housing?

 

Satou Rikidou: sry u don't need to tell me

 

Shouji Mezou: It’s okay. My parents are on an extended vacation and I’ve been living alone for the past couple of months. I just needed to discuss emergency contacts.

 

Satou Rikidou: still tho, didn't u get bothered by ur landlord for being underage?

 

Shouji Mezou: Most people I meet think I am twenty.

 

Kouda Kouji: lmao same

 

Satou Rikidou: actually tho accurate

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: @Todoroki I would either go with Aizawa-sensei or someone you like

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Are you still coming over tonight?

 

Shouji Mezou: I would vote for All Might because of his hero status but he is… loud.

 

Todoroki Shouto: @Tokoyami yes, if I can. Thank you

 

Kouda Kouji: np *✧･ﾟ:*( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ )*:･ﾟ✧*

 

Satou Rikidou: good luck <3

 

-

 

Shouto grabs a bag of clothes from his room, shoves a few of the books under his bed into his backpack, and stares at the mess left.

 

There’s more he wants to bring, more cardboard boxes of erotic novels from America and hardbacks on dictatorships and blankets that Michio mailed over from college.

 

He closes the door to his room. He has lived a life out of a jacket and pouch full of knives. All that’s left in life is just excess. All that’s left, he can buy.

 

Shouto gives Fuyumi another hug and leaves before things can get emotional again. He walks the mile to the station and rides a bullet train into Hamamatsu.

 

When he gets off he readjusts his facemask, pulling it higher up over his nose. The air is cloudy with pollution and he can barely see through the shifting crowd.

 

He takes a deep breath, releases it, and disappears into the mass of people to find Tokoyami. His bag bumps into a passing person, jostling him to the side. Todoroki passes shops selling ice cream and foreigners chatting loudly and a man with a quirk that gives him giant purple wings.

 

Tokoyami is waiting for him by their chosen location, a flowering tree in front of a crepe store. He’s wearing ratty jeans that show his pale knees and a hoodie with the sleeves pushed up to reveal a red striped shirt.

 

Todoroki waves and shifts across pedestrian traffic to reach the other boy. There, he stands for Tokoyami’s glaring inspection.

 

Todoroki’s eye not hidden under his eyepatch curls into a crescent, a smile where the rest of his face is hidden. “Yo,” he says while flashing a lazy peace sign.

 

“You’re late,” Tokoyami replies, trying to look down on him despite their seven inch height difference.

 

Todoroki goes to provide a bullshit excuse but stops at Tokoyami’s death eyes. Instead, he decides to use Shouji’s tactic and props an elbow on the smaller boy’s shoulder.

 

“When’s the last time you slept? Your eye bags are awful,” he offers.

 

Tokoyami snorts and shoves a skinny elbow in his side. Todoroki hops away, clutching at his stomach in mock pain and shoots a wounded look at his friend. “Careful, I’m a delicate flower. Don’t ruin my model career before it starts, Fumikage.”

 

Tokoyami huffs under his breath, trying not to laugh as he says, “I’m pretty sure you need to show more than a quarter of your face to qualify as a model.”

 

He turns a corner down a side street and steps over a puddle. Todoroki suddenly understands the boy’s choice of footgear in the purple rain boots Tokoyami is wearing.

 

“It’s quality, not quantity. Plus,” Todoroki grins, “you don’t seem to mind Shouji’s mask.”

 

“Fuck off,” Tokoyami replies, kicking water and mud from a gutter at him.

 

Todoroki ices it before it can reach him. He looks around surreptitiously to check if anyone is watching before melting it from where it stands in jagged spikes.

 

“Don’t do that,” Tokoyami hisses, whipping his head from side to side to catch passerbys. “No quirk use without a license!”

 

Todoroki jumps over a patch of mud and jogs until he is walking beside Tokoyami again. “It was self defense.”

 

“Sure.”

 

“I needed to protect my face. You’re threatening my livelihood.”

 

Tokoyami’s eyes crease and shoulders shake as he tries to hold back laughter. Todoroki rests his arm on the smaller boy’s shoulder again and leans into him.

 

“Come on Fumikage, what would All Might say if he saw you destroying my chances?”

 

Tokoyami’s laughs ring out through the side street. He turns to walk up a set of stairs to an apartment entrance and fumbles with his keys. “You’re a complete dumbass,” he says while unlocking the door.

 

Todoroki grins and follows his friend through the lobby and into the elevator.

 

-

5:22pm

**Concerned Friends Part IV**

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Package has been successfully transported to safe house. Interrogation efforts in progress

 

Satou Rikidou: damn babe talk dirty to me

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Chat cancelled

 

Kouda Kouji: betrayal

 

Shouji Mezou: Wasted.

 

Satou Rikidou: friendship ended w concerned squad todobro is my bff now

 

Kouda Kouji: ily ° ͜ʖ ͡ – ✧

 

Satou Rikidou: nvm

 

Satou Rikidou: actually gonna cry, ive been #blessed <3

 

Shouji Mezou: How is he doing?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: He’s fine. We were laughing earlier

 

Satou Rikidou: dam wish I had a bf to do me lik that

 

Kouda Kouji: alright then lol 凸( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Satou Rikidou: it was a joke bro, u my tru bf

 

Kouda Kouji: thx

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Todoroki is not my boyfriend. I am not interested in him romantically

 

Satou Rikidou: bf- best friend

 

Satou Rikidou: lmao u answered that super fast tho tokobro

 

Satou Rikidou: got anything to share w the class

 

Shouji Mezou: Fumikage’s romantic interests aside, has Todoroki said anything about being kicked out yet?

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I’ll ask him, give me a second

 

-

 

5:27pm

**Three Tall Friends (and two short ones)**

 

Todoroki Shouto: if you guys wanted to know why i was kicked out i would have told you

 

Todoroki Shouto: i trust you

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I swear to god I did not tell him anything

 

Shouji Mezou: Todoroki, we are extremely sorry for going behind your back like that. We were concerned and did not want to pester you while sharing information.

 

Satou Rikidou: im so sorry we fucked up

 

Todoroki Shouto: its okay

 

Todoroki Shouto: i understand your reasons and would have likely done the same thing. i can tell you all now

 

Satou Rikidou: thank you

 

Shouji Mezou: How did you know we had made a separate chat, if I may ask?

 

Todoroki Shouto: tokoyami was texting people

 

Todoroki Shouto: you are the only people he knows

 

Kouda Kouji: dam

 

Satou Rikidou: ok alright

 

Satou Rikidou: my boi shouto out here dropping emotional truth then straight up roasting

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: …

 

Shouji Mezou: He’s not wrong.

 

Kouda Kouji: ^^^^ lol

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Okay

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: So can you tell us why you were kicked out?

 

Todoroki Shouto: i told my dad i was gay

 

Satou Rikidou: …

 

Satou Rikidou: wtf

 

Satou Rikidou: no srsly wtf, ur dad kicked u out bc of that

 

Satou Rikidou: im gonna throw tf down

 

Satou Rikidou: where the fuck is he

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Brb

 

Kouda Kouji: shouto we love u and u do not deserve this bs

 

Shouto Rikidou: ^^^ ur our friend

 

Shouji Mezou: Shouto, thank you for telling us this. You were very brave and I am truly sorry for what happened. Is there anyway we can help you right now?

 

Todoroki Shouto: i

 

Todoroki Shouto: thank you

 

Todoroki Shouto: i appreciate it. im okay right now

 

Satou Rikidou: if there is anything we can do lmk

 

Kouda Kouji: ily

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I am back. Shouto, you are one of my friends and I would hide a body for you

 

Todoroki Shouto: thank you for that oddly specific declaration

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: Just let me know if you need me

 

Todoroki Shouto: will do

 

Todoroki Shouto: sorry for ruining the moment but can we go back to regular convo now? im worried i missed quality content from the other chat

 

Satou Rikidou: fuck dude don't worry abt it. I will ramp up the bs levels to max

 

Satou Rikidou: kouji rn -> ─=≡Σ(ง ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)=/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿̿̿ ̿ ̿̿

 

Kouda Kouji: me omw to kill a bitch

 

Satou Rikidou: fuuuuuck lmao

 

Shouji Mezou: I have a meme I’ve been working on.

 

Satou Rikidou: oh pls send

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I am also very interested

 

Shouji Mezou sent [blondes-alignment-chart.png](https://somewherefarfromvictory.tumblr.com/post/166248304709/httparchiveofourownorgworks12323409chapters)

 

Satou Rikidou: HOLY SHIT

 

Satou Rikidou: AKJFNPSNDPOISA

 

Kouda Kouji: !!!!!!

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: I think I just choked on my own spit

 

Satou Rikidou: AOYAMAS NEUTRAL FABULOUS

 

Satou Rikidou: OHMYFUCK!!!

 

Tokoyami Fumikage: That weird kid from class 1-B holy shit

 

Kouda Kouji: lmaoooo comic sans

 

Todoroki Shouto: blessed image

 

Satou Rikidou: im never gonna get over this fuuuuuck

 

Shouji Mezou: Thank you. ( ͡° > ͡°)

 

-

 

Todoroki stands outside the teacher’s lounge at 7:00 a.m. and twists the braided bracelet Kouda made him around his wrist.

 

His fingers tap out a pattern on the strands of colored thread.

 

Green, pink, yellow, blue. Green, pink, yellow, blue. Green, pink, yellow, blue.

 

He is here to see a teacher about moving into U.A. student housing. He is here to calmly explain his situation to someone he trusts to fix his living scenario.

 

Endeavor has not attempted to make contact with him yet. It has been two days since the family dinner. Fuyumi has successfully moved into a friends house for the rest of the month.

 

Todoroki stands outside the door to the teacher’s lounge and tries to decide who to speak to.

 

Green, pink, yellow, blue.

 

All Might, Aizawa, Present Mic.

 

All Might is the obvious choice. He is the number one hero, the most powerful man in the world, the symbol of peace. All Might has no doubt worked with plenty of cases of abuse and neglect. He is high profile, a man who’s passion is shown with every movement. But as a hero, he must have learned to be quiet at times. He must know discretion in some way to hide that secret of his, the one that’s stripping him of life and making him cough blood.

 

Shouji said All Might would be too loud. Todoroki does not believe that, but he still hesitates.

 

Todoroki hesitates because he cannot look at the hero without thinking of revenge and fire and the terrible weight of legacies. He was a tool made to bring All Might down from his pillar. He was born for this reason, trained for this reason.

 

Todoroki never wanted to become a hero. He does not believe he has earned the title. Fate and his father decided for him.

 

Todoroki thinks of All Might and tastes ash and feels frost and can remember the slide of a kitchen knife through his face.

 

Green, pink, yellow, blue tap his fingers on the bracelet.

 

Aizawa is the next choice. He is Todoroki’s homeroom teacher, the hero he knows best. He is what Todoroki thinks is a real hero, one who does not fight for fame or money or revenge. Eraserhead sticks to the shadows and does his job and does it well.

 

Todoroki remembers the man’s exhausted eyes, his heavy walk, his callous teaching.

 

Todoroki can only think of himself, of him-as-Hatake. He thinks of war and marshes where mosquitoes and knives spilled blood. He thinks of lines redacted from reports and the worst jobs and signing his life away. He remembers burning in a battlefield of politics and assassinations, losing his childhood and losing his friends and losing his humor as everything non-essential was whittled down under a snarling mask.

 

He remembers being fourteen, grief-stricken and rubbed raw with emotion. He remembers walking to the Hogake’s office after a 48-hour shift of digging up bodies and submitting his application. He remembers being let loose on the world, a broken soldier ready to die for his country in black ops.

 

He remembers pulling himself out and wasting away by a memorial stone and getting three students and loving them and losing them because of his mistakes, because of his apathy and his horrible teaching and his failures.

 

He knows Aizawa is much better than him, so much better than him-as-Hatake, but he can’t push past that haunting comparison.

 

Green, pink, yellow, blue. Green, pink, yellow, blue.

 

Todoroki untangles his fingers from the bracelet and knocks on the door. Snipe opens it.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Todoroki looks up at the opaque eyes of Snipe’s mask. “Could I speak with Present Mic-sensei?”

 

Snipe grunts and closes the door. Todoroki can hear him call for Present Mic and within a minute, the arc of the man’s hair is visible through the darkened window of the lounge.

 

Present Mic opens the door. “Hey young Todoroki, what can I help you with?”

 

Todoroki hides a wince at his volume and hides a smile, an automatic reflex, behind his mask. “Could I talk to you in private?”

 

Present Mic’s glasses slip down his nose to reveal concentric circles wrapping around his pupils. Todoroki does not think about gods or leveled cities or the end of times.

 

“Sure thing kid, one sec.” He leans back into the lounge and calls out a bit too loudly, “I’ll be back in a bit Shouta.”

 

“Fuck off,” Todoroki hears from inside.

 

Present Mic grins and gestures for Todoroki to follow him.

 

They sit across from each other at a tiny table in an unused classroom. If Todoroki moves his legs, their knees would touch.

 

Present Mic flips him some finger guns and asks him what’s wrong. His hair shifts with every movement of his head and Todoroki wonder how much time it took him to put it up like that.

 

Todoroki tries to speak. His words catch in his throat.

 

He coughs, swallows a mouthful of spit, and tries again.

 

This time, it works.

 

Todoroki Shouto tells his teacher everything.

 

Todoroki tells Present Mic about quirk marriages and being discarded and being discovered when flames danced in tandem to ice on his fingertips. He tells him about a silent house and a canvas of abuse and missing school and siblings that barely existed.

 

He tells Present Mic about a knife and a cutting board and a phone call and an eye. He talks about an injury that won’t heal and a mother in a psych ward and two siblings that left. He describes bruises and burns and frostbite and eating lunch between classes so he would not have to interact with his peers.

 

He talks about expectations and ash and a smile with too many teeth and the smell of fear and a family dinner. Present Mic stares with a blank face as Todoroki describes a cup too much sake and a question and an answer and a slap to the face and winding up three miles away from home under an empty sky.

 

Todoroki tells his sensei about sleeping at friends houses and telling his sister to leave and not being contacted by his father.

 

Present Mic sits and listens and stares Todoroki in the eyes.

 

Todoroki says, “I would like to stay in the U.A. dorms for the rest of the school year. I can pay for room and board and I can feed myself. I just need a place to stay where he will not follow me.”

 

Present Mic looks at Todoroki with a blank face and nods. “I’ll see what I can do,” he says.

 

Todoroki lets his eyes fall closed. He is tired. His throat aches from speaking and the clock reads 7:45.

 

He has been talking for almost an hour.

 

Present Mic telegraphs the fall of his hand to land on Todoroki’s shoulder. Todoroki would be annoyed by the delicacy of it if he was not exhausted in this moment, rubbed bare and shivering with the feeling of laying out his past.

 

Present Mic grips Todoroki’s shoulder. “Thank you for telling me this, Shouto. You are very brave. I will make sure you are safe.”

 

Todoroki nods. He is empty. Something unravels in his gut and he thinks it is a stone of anxiety he has been carrying for sixteen years.

 

Present Mic’s hand comes up from Todoroki’s shoulder to rest on his hand. He doesn’t pat it, doesn’t rustle his hair. Instead, the man looks very far away as he rolls Todoroki’s head slowly from side to side.

 

Todoroki opens his eyes to stare at his teacher's expression. He feels heat seep from Present Mic’s hand into his scalp and realizes that it is guilt playing across the man's face.

 

“Alright,” Todoroki says.

 

They stay like that for another minute. Then, Present Mic drops his hand and tells Todoroki to get to homeroom.

 

Todoroki stands from the tiny table, feels his knees brush against Present Mic’s. He walks to the door, opens it, and steps into the hallway. It’s empty, all of the students are in class. As Todoroki turns to shut the door behind him, he thinks he sees Present Mic wipe under his eyes.

 

He is twenty minutes late to homeroom. Aizawa asks for a tardy slip and Todoroki says that he got lost on the road of life and couldn’t get one. There’s a laugh somewhere in the class, a disbelieving giggle that someone like Todoroki would say something like that.

 

Aizawa sighs, mutters something like ‘get one next time’ and waves him to the back.

 

Tokoyami gives him a small thumbs up as Todoroki walks to his desk. Kouda reaches out to grab his hand and squeeze it before Todoroki sits down. Satou pats his back encouragingly and across the room, Shouji meets his eyes and smiles under his mask.

 

Aizawa-sensei announces the U.A. sports festival.

 

Todoroki sighs and starts planning for the tournament.

\--

 

/banned_footage/ CREATED (Wed)21:23 BY k1llj0y

 

k1llj0y

>Banned thread, no celeb/gore/ylyl

 

sharkfuckah

>>no celeb/gore/ylyl

>lmao fucking living up to your name

 

thotpatrol_1200

>@k1llj0y post some shit to start bitch

 

sadboizz

>ufo_sighting_3939.mov

sadboizz

>big_foot_lives_notquirk.mov

 

uknoihad2

>@sadboizz that’s conspiracy not banned

 

sadboizz

>moth_man_is_real_and_he_fucked_me.mov

 

thotpatrol_1323

>@sadboizz no celeb dumbass

 

sharkfuckah

>>@sadboizz no celeb dumbass

>lmao

 

thotpatrol_1200

>no vid yet, is thread dead?

 

k1llj0y

>>is thread dead?

>My apologies, had to find this gem THE_REFORMERS_RECRUITMENT.mov

 

gayjackiechan

>@k1llj0y Yooooo is this what I think it is?

 

uknoihad2

>@gayjackiechan can verify, that's the real shit. friend works odd jobs for reformers

 

picassoaintshit

>new to site, can someone explain reformers?

 

thotpatrol_4200

>@picassoaintshit

>Reformers is underground vigilante/villain group

>Actually is similar to aboveground shit like hero killer with ideology and method

>Basically dedicated to reforming how heroes work/publicity/fame

 

gayjackiechan

>@picassoaintshit they do terrorist stuff and run drugs on top of that

>good concept, poor execution lol

 

uknoihad2

>I actually have a shit ton of their vids, friend wanted to be sure before he joined, lemme find them

 

thotpatrol_999

>@uknoihad2 lmao ‘friend’

 

uknoihad2

>THE_REFORMERS_RECRUIT_1.mov

 

uknoihad2

>THE_REFORMERS_INTERVIEW_W_CARIBOU.mov

 

uknoihad2

>THE_REFORMERS_INTERVIEW_W_SCUTTLEBUG.mov

 

gayjackiechan

>@uknoihad2 hoooly fuck can u verify that’s actually Caribou and Scuttlebug?

 

eatdick3003

>@gayjackiechan lol the fact u actually think thats them proves how stupid u r

 

thotpatrol_1323

>@eatdick3003 go live up to your username shit nugget

 

uknoihad2

>@gayjackiechan can verify, plus information is backed up by news/hero org

 

picassoaintshit

>@gayjackiechan @uknoihad2 who are they?

 

gayjackiechan

>@picassoaintshit leaders of the reformers

 

dronehead

>anyone want footage of baby heroes?

 

k1llj0y

>@dronehead Yes, please post

 

sharkfuckah

>@dronehead @k1lljoy yikes yall on some villain shit

 

thotpatrol_6969

>@sharkfuckah stats show 71% of anonymous chat site users have villainous/illegal tendencies

 

dronehead

>entrance_exam(big3yr).mov

 

dronehead

>entrance_exam2.mov

 

dronehead

>footage from this year’s exam came back corrupted, a kid with emp quirk or some bs

 

k1llj0y

>@dronehead Thank you

 

uknoihad2

>@dronehead damn this is really well shot, how did you get this

 

sharkfuckah

>@dronehead watch out @uknoihad2 is coming to recruit u for reformers lol

 

gayjackiechan

>@dronehead do u have footage from USJ incident?

 

dronehead

>@k1llj0y you’re welcome

>@uknoihad2 I’m invoking the no snitching act

>@gayjackiechan yeah, ill post

 

thotpatrol_1323

>>I’m invoking the no snitching act

>@uknoihad2 lmao get owned

 

picassoaintshit

>what’s up with the thotpatrol accounts

 

dronehead

>@gayjackiechan

>lov_attack_usj.mov

 

gayjackiechan

>@dronehead hoooooly shit

>bruh im so glad I have a tor rn this shit is wild

 

thotpatrol_420

>@dronehead did todoroki just steal All Might’s kill

 

sharkfuckah

>wtf did all might just get hit

 

uknoihad2

>this shit is insane, does this confirm the FakeMight conspiracy?

 

dronehead

>@uknoihad2 FakeMight is bs

 

gayjackiechan

>im still not over the todoroki kid

>the motherfucker just stone cold killed a guy why hasn't this been released?

 

uknoihad2

>@gayjackiechan you know why

 

picassoaintshit

>is this real?

 

sharkfuckah

>@picassoaintshit im running it by a guy with a verification quirk one sec

 

gayjackiechan

>@sharkfuckah pullin thru with the verifications as usual

 

sharkfuckah

>@gayjackiechan hey last three videos abt FakeMight conspiracy were shit, don't fuck with me

 

gayjackiechan

>@sharkfuckah lmaooooo

>@picassoaintshit thot patrol accounts all belong to a cult, don't think abt it

 

picassoaintshit

>@gayjackiechan okay?

 

dronehead

>todoroki_battle_diffangle.mov

 

k1llj0y

>@dronehead Thank you

 

thotpatrol_86869

>@dronehead todoroki just straight up threatened a guy with a knife lmao

 

eatdick3003

>lol this shit is fake yall dumb as hell

 

sharkfuckah

>@gayjackiechan @k1llj0y friend verified, its legit

 

dronehead

>@sharkfuckah yup

 

sadboizz

>does this confirm FireVillain theory?

 

thotpatrol_4200

>@sadboizz no wasn't FireVillain proven to be an underground villain

>if anything this hints at BadDadGate

 

picassoaintshit

>@thotpatrol_4200 can u explain?

 

sadboizz

>@thot_patrol4200 I didn't know about the underground villain, name and quirk?

 

gayjackiechan

>@picassoaintshit there were a string of unexplainable fires a couple months back

>people here thought it was Endeavor or one of his kids going fucking wild

>a lot of people hate Endeavor anyway so it ballooned into this big thing

>Endeavor had to release testimony to prove he wasn't by the incidents

>dude was pissed as shit, kinda hilarious actually

 

thotpatrol_4200

>@sadboizz villain name: dabi, quirk: something with fire

>@uknoihad2 could prob tell u more

 

uknoihad2

>@sadboizz @thotpatrol_4200 ive never associated w/ the reformers but I know they did work with Dabi very briefly

 

picassoaintshit

>@gayjackiechan what about BadDadGate?

 

thotpatrol_4200

>@picassoaintshit BadDadGate was conspiracy that Endeavor is abusive

 

gayjackiechan

>@picassoaintshit basically theory is

>very little media attention put on his older children versus his youngest

>only difference between them is that the youngest double inherited

>the Todoroki incident about ten years back that tried to get hushed up

>pictures of the youngest sporting bruises/burns

>vid that also got banned from net that showed Endeavor talking abt his son like he was an object

 

sharkfuckah

>@picassoaintshit personally I believe it, a lot of it makes sense

 

gayjackiechan

>todoroki_shouto_bruises.png

>todoroki_shouto_stalker_pic.png

>todoroki_shouto_on_train_bruising?.png

 

thotpatrol_4200

>todoroki_enji(endeavor)_banned_footage.mov

 

picassoaintshit

>holy fuck

 

k1llj0y

>HERO_KILLER_IDEALOLOGY.mov

 

k1llj0y

>Please do not post this outside of the thread, police have cyberheroes tracking it

 

gayjackiechan

>@k1llj0y got it

>man I fucking love hero killer

>@dronehead you got any footage?

 

dronehead

>@gayjackiechan herokiller_kos_badmitten.mov

 

k1llj0y

>@sharkfuckah can u verify

 

sharkfuckah

>@k1llj0y already on it, its real

 

gayjackiechan

>confirmed kill tho?

 

sharkfuckah

>yall are fucking evil I s2g get ur stan ass out of here

 

gayjackiechan

>@sharkfuckah lol

 

>>WELCOME rokudaime.hokage TO vid/banned_footage/

 

rokudaime.hogake

>@all update on hero killer situation

 

picassoaintshit

>who is this?

 

k1llj0y

>@rokudaime.hokage A new victim has been claimed from Hosu

>Hero name: Blotter was found with multiple knife wounds in an alley by Ingenium’s hero agency at approx. 2am yesterday

>Cause of death: stab wound severing brachial artery, Blotter bled out

 

dronehead

>@rokudaime.hokage ill send you CCTV of attack, I didn't manage to get footage outside of Badmitten’s murder

 

sharkfuckah

>@rokudaime.hokage nothing from my end boss. Press is trying to cover it up tho

 

gayjackiechan

>@rokudaime.hokage I tried to do the police thing where u pin up where the bad guy attacks and I didn't find a pattern. Ill msg it to u tho.

>also hero killer popularity is rising in social media. hes not trending yet, but once he does something big he will be

 

sadboizz

>@picassoaintshit hes like the shadow leader or something of the site

>don't think too much about it but apparently he is responsible for the dissolution of the Sixth Wave gang that kidnapped that hero a year ago

 

picassoaintshit

>@sadboizz you mean the Silver Horns case? Holy shit

 

rokudaime.hokage

>@sadboizz glad you think do much of me

>@picassoaintshit might want to hide your ip on this site, someone might get ahold of your personal info and report you for engaging in villainous activity

>@uknoihad2 will Reformers interfere if hero killer proceeds with purging?

>@thotpatrol_4200 has Honcho received the goods?

>@sharkfuckah @gayjackiechan @dronehead @k1llj0y thank you, keep in contact

 

sharkfuckah

>@rokudaime.hokage will do boss

 

thotpatrol_4200

>@rokudaime.hokage package has been received. Payment on its way

 

picassoaintshit

>holy fuck

 

>>picassoaintshit HAS LEFT vid/banned_footage/

 

eatshit3003

>lmao pussy

 

uknoihad2

>@rokudaime.hokage Reformers has not mentioned interfering. i believe they will leave him alone as long as he only purges who they deem morally corrupt

>you gonna raid?

 

rokudaime.hokage

>@thotpatrol_4200 send my thanks

>@uknoihad2 we’ll see

>@k1llj0y @dronehead @gayjackiechan @uknoihad2 please send all information you have on LOV to my inbox, we can negotiate payment if applicable

>@sharkfuckah don't do anything stupid

 

rokudaime.hokage HAS LEFT vid/banned_footage/

 

sadboizz

>im dead, I have been killed, RH has noticed me

 

sharkfuckah

>why he gotta call me out like this

 

k1llj0y

>@sharkfuckah you know why

\--

 

Todoroki’s feet pound against the pavement, a sharp counterpoint to his even breaths. He checks his watch as he rounds a corner, eight miles in just over forty minutes.

 

Training has been different now that he is staying at the U.A. dorms. There are fewer bruises, only two injuries that have warranted medical attention. He has not had to limp back to his room at one a.m. for a week now.

 

Endeavor used to wake him up at midnight, right after he came back from patrol. He used to pull Shouto out of bed and order him into the dojo, throw him around until he was satisfied with Shouto’s technique.

 

Shouto’s had the ability to beat his father for a long time now. He is no longer a seven year old getting knocked into the mats, no longer a child planning his father’s murder by night. He does not have to adjust to a shorter range, a blind side, three decades of memory telling him to fold his fingers into useless signs and pull a blade from where one doesn't exist.

 

Shouto’s had the ability to beat his father for a while now. The man is strong and deadly and fast and rages harder than wildfire, but he is not infallible. Shouto had been a soldier at war when the man was just discovering his quirk. When Shouto got hit in the family dojo at age sixteen, it was because he was exhausted from drilling himself, from monitoring chat sites, from getting six hours of sleep a night because there is so much knowledge in this world and he feels like he can never absorb all of it.

 

Shouto’s been at his father’s level for a while now, he just doesn’t show it his father’s way. Endeavor’s a spot light hero, a man who hates the press but lives for attention, for power. Shouto has been an assassin in another world for longer than he has lived in this one. Some habits die hard.

 

He finishes his ninth mile a block from Shouji’s apartment and hesitates to run the final two up the hill U.A. rests atop of. Todoroki has to work out a new move he’s been planning and he needs at least have half his energy for that.

 

He slows to a jog and circles the block at a lazy pace. He finishes right in front of a waist high gate marked with a lopsided address plate. Todoroki pushes it open, walks through a garden bristling with aloe plants, and pauses at the telephone hooked by the elevator door to call up to Shouji apartment.

 

It rings out. He tries again. Nothing.

 

Frowning, Todoroki leans his back against the wall and pulls out his phone. Shouji is usually back by this time.

 

Todoroki is just about to text him when a voice calls his name.

 

He turns and sees Shouji opening the gate with one hand and waving with another. He’s wearing a tank top that Tokoyami bought him, a hideous neon thing with ‘SUNS OUT GUNS OUT’ emblazoned in English across it, and is carrying a gym bag over his shoulder.

 

“Yo,” Todoroki replies and watches Shouji walk through the scraggly garden. The other boy continues up to the door and leans over Todoroki, boxing him into the wall as Shouji reaches an arm up to open his mailbox.

 

Todoroki scrunches his nose up as one of Shouji’s hands plants itself on his head and shakes his hair into a cloud of silver.

 

Shouji pulls back with a bundle of letters in his hand and slings an arm over Todoroki’s shoulders, pulling him sideways into his chest and burying his hand deeper into Todoroki’s hair to rub knuckles into his scalp.

 

Todoroki tries to wiggle out of the taller boys grasp to no avail. Shouji huffs a laugh under his breath and pulls Todoroki into the elevator.

 

“You want some water?” Shouji asks as he loosens his hold.

 

“Sure,” Todoroki says, maneuvering his head out of Shouji’s elbow. He pulls off his headband and wipes a hand over his sweaty forehead. Then he wipes his hand on Shouji’s shoulder in revenge.

 

Shouji looks momentarily grossed out but then he grins. “You really want to start something? I got three times as many armpits as you.”

 

The door opens and Todoroki rushes out, avoiding Shouji’s swipe and kicking his tennis shoes off in front of the other boy’s apartment. He ducks under another one of Shouji’s grabs and backs away from the door so Shouji can unlock it.

 

“Truce?” He tries.

 

Shouji snorts and opens the apartment door. One of his hands tosses his gym bag to the side and another one reaches behind his shoulders to grab the back of his tank and pull it over his head.

 

“I’m going to go shower, you know where the cups are.”

 

“Alright.”

 

Fifteen minutes later Shouji walks out of his bathroom in a pair of boxers with a towel around his neck to find Todoroki lounging by the kitchen counter, sipping water from a coffee mug while typing on his phone. Shouji throws a clean towel at Todoroki and opens his dishwasher to pull out a clean glass.

 

He fills it up from the sink and sits across from Todoroki at the counter.

 

“Hey, good luck tomorrow,” Shouji says.

 

Todoroki lowers his phone and rests his face on a hand. “You too.”

 

They stay like that, loose-limbed and calm, until Todoroki has to return to the U.A. dorms. Shouji waits by his open door as Todoroki slides his shoes back on.

 

“See you,” he says.

 

Todoroki waves while stepping on the elevator.

 

He runs the last two miles to U.A. and signs into an individual training room. He has work to do.

-

 

The day of the sports festival is pleasantly sunny and there is a surprising turnout to the first year’s competition. Todoroki can hear the screams of the crowd from inside the waiting room where he sits with 1-A.

 

He’s in the middle of a subdued conversation with Tokoyami about the previous year's festivals when he’s interrupted by the sound of someone stomping over.

 

“Hey cyclops bastard!”

 

Todoroki sighs under his breath and keeps his eyes on Tokoyami.

 

“It’s more plausible for there to be an individual competition before a group one. Though there was the conspicuous outlier two years back, the trend of the festivals has been-“

 

“Hey! Fuckin’ cyclops bastard, I’m talking to you!”

 

A burning palm lands on his shoulder and Todoroki fights his instinct to ice whoever is touching him.

 

Instead, he slowly rolls his head back to look up at whoever has decided to interrupt his conversation.

 

It’s anger-issues.

 

The room has gone quiet. Someone whispers, “Oh shit.” Tokoyami starts to stand before Shouji grabs the back of his shirt and pulls him back down into his seat.

 

Todoroki looks at anger-issues upside down and in the most innocent tone he can manage, asks, “Me?”

 

“Yes, you!” Anger-issues yells. “I’m gonna kick your fucking ass today! I don’t give a damn if you’re at the top of the fucking class, you don’t mean shit. I’m gonna beat the shit out of you in the tournament and win this whole fucking thing!”

 

“Sorry,” Todoroki says, scratching the strip of skin between his mask and eye patch, “What was your name again?”

 

If the room was quiet before, it is deathly silent now. Todoroki can feel eighteen pairs of eyes on the two of them as anger-issues stares almost blankly down at him.

 

Then, he starts screaming.

 

“Who the fuck do you thing you are, you fucking extra? You’re just a fucking obstacle, and you’re gonna get beat the fuck down-”

 

Shark-teeth lunges forward to grab a hold of anger-issues before the he charges Todoroki. Lightening-bolt waves his hands in front of the raging boy in an attempt to placate the him as explosions crackle to life in his palms. Tokoyami tries to stand up again but is tugged back by Shouji who plants a hand in the smaller boy’s feathers to keep him in place.

 

Dark Shadow starts emerging from Tokoyami’s chest in billowing clouds of smoke and Kouda yelps in surprise as a corporeal wing brushes against his head. Midoriya approaches anger-issues and tries to calm him, only to receive the complete opposite reaction. Weird-elbows lets out a terrified giggle and Iida rushes over to begin yelling about conduct.

 

Todoroki sits in the middle of chaos and nonchalantly pulls out his phone to check the time. On cue, the door slams open and Aizawa’s heavily bandaged face peers into the room.

 

Everyone freezes and stares in panic at their homeroom teacher. Aizawa stares back before letting out the most exhausted sigh.

 

“I’m not getting paid enough for this,” he murmurs under his breath then clears his throat.

 

“You are going to enter the stadium in fifteen minutes. If you are not there, I’m expelling you.”

 

He turns and walks off, leaving the door wide open and the entire class paralyzed in a wild tableau.

 

Todoroki breaks the quiet by rising smoothly to his feet and strolling out the door, hands in the pockets of his uniform. Behind him, noise breaks out again as the class scrambles to get ready. He hears a wild yell of, “This isn’t over cyclops bastard!”

 

He smiles under his mask.

-

 

Midnight cracks her whip and calls Todoroki up to give the school pledge.

 

Todoroki doesn’t know the school pledge. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard it in his life and certainly hasn’t seen it anywhere at U.A.

 

He looks up at Aizawa-sensei’s figure in the commentating booth as he ascends the steps to the microphone. Ah, that must be it. Aizawa was probably too tired to bother teaching it to his homeroom.

 

Todoroki stands in front of the microphone and ponders what to say. He leans forward dramatically, watching the crowd swell in anticipation.

 

“Good luck everyone. Plus Ultra,” he monotones and turns around to walk off the stage.

 

The crowd is silent. Hesitantly, someone begins to clap. The rest of the stadium joins in with awkward, sparse applause. Midnight grabs for the mic and restarts her oddly-sexual commentary in an attempt to save the moment.

 

The first competition is announced. A race.

 

Todoroki ices the ground the second start is called and weaves through the packed crowd in a sprint to make it out of the first tunnel. He winks jauntily as he passes Shouji and grins to himself as Tokoyami’s offended screeches echo off the tunnel sides.

 

He throws up a wall of ice behind him and takes a minute to create a pair of blades on the bottoms of his shoes.

 

He risks a glance back to see anger-issues break through the glacier and scream when he catches sight of Todoroki.

 

Todoroki smirks, creates a plane of ice below him, and uses his new skates to glide across the ground.

 

A group of zero-point robots from the first exam emerge in front of him, steps shaking the earth as they close in. Todoroki slips under the feet of one, spins on one skate to face backwards, and does a shaky crossover to gain momentum.

 

Facing the backs of the robots, he sweeps two hands up to create giant spears of ice that rise up from the path he made to puncture the zero-pointers through their chests.

 

Todoroki jabs one of his skates into the ground, uses the drag to spin forward, and listens absently to Present Mic’s commentary.

 

Anger-issues catches up to him at the canyon, blasting over the obstacle while Todoroki has to slide across the ropes and pillars. They remain neck and neck until the minefield where Midoriya flies out of nowhere to land ahead of them.

 

They are in the final stretch, sprinting through the last tunnel, when Todoroki makes a split second decision.

 

He slows, lets the other two pass him, and lazily jogs the rest of the way to the finish line. Anger-issues glances over from where he stands seething at getting second place and turns red when Todoroki steps casually over the finish line.

 

Present Mic’s voice booms overhead, announcing his spot at third place and noting his slowed pace.

 

Todoroki waits for the remaining thirty-nine competitors to cross the finish line and pushes heat through his body to offset the chill he picked up.

 

Tokoyami finishes around the twenty-minute mark. He stalks over to Todoroki, clearly having heard Present Mic’s words.

 

“What happened?” He hisses. “Why did you slow down?”

 

Todoroki looks up at Midnight on her stage. “A hunch,” he replies. “What happened to Satou and Kouda?”

 

Shouji jogs over to them and raises his arms above his head to catch his breath. “Satou took too high a dose to tackle the robots and couldn’t figure out how to cross the canyon. Kouda was slowed down at the minefield. You know how he doesn’t like loud noises.”

 

“Shit,” Tokoyami says, annoyance at Todoroki shifting into concern for his friends.

 

“Next year,” Todoroki says.

 

“Yeah,” Shouji lets his hands fall, “Sucks though.

 

Midnight announces the next game, a cavalry competition. When she describes the points system, Tokoyami turns to Todoroki. “A hunch, you said.”

 

“Mm.”

 

Tokoyami shoves his hands into his pockets. “I assume you have a plan then.”

 

Todoroki nods and looks up at Shouji. “Hey Mezou, how much did you say you could lift?”

 

Shouji blinks, “I was able to exert 540 kilos of force during the apprehension test.”

 

Tokoyami blinks and stares at Shouji’s arms. Todoroki just nods.

 

“Here’s how we are going to win,” he says and outlines his plan.

-

 

Midnight cracks her whip and the crowd cheers as the teams of first year students charge each other.

 

There are explosions and screams and the crackle of electricity from Midoriya’s group. Somewhere, a propeller roars and Yaoyorozu’s team answers with Iida’s engine legs.

 

In a corner of the field, a bristling defense of hoarfrost rises from the dirt.

 

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Yelps Tokoyami as Shouji shifts the smaller boy higher up on his back.

 

“Yes,” Todoroki replies from his position cradled in Shouji’s left tentacle webbing. Where Tokoyami clutches at Shouji’s shoulder frantically, Todoroki uses his legs to prop himself up between Shouji’s back and arms, leaving both hands free to direct his ice.

 

“I am the defense. You and Dark Shadow are the attack. Shouji is our eyes, preventing anyone from sneaking past us.”

 

A growling boy tries to jump over Todoroki’s defense and is pushed away with a block of ice. Dark Shadow swoops past them, tugging the boy’s headband from his head and carrying it over to Tokoyami.

 

Tokoyami passes it to Todoroki. “Still, shouldn’t we be moving?”

 

“Behind us,” Shouji calls out. Todoroki turns around to catch a vine trying to grab his headbands. A blast of fire chars its end and the rest retreats. “Thanks,” Todoroki says to one of Shouji’s eyes. It winks at him. Or blinks. It’s hard to tell with a single eye.

 

Todoroki turns back to Tokoyami. “We already have enough points to make it into the next round. The most cost-effective thing to do is defend what we have.”

 

Dark Shadow returns with another headband and drapes it over Todoroki’s head. “Left side,” Shouji calls and Todoroki sends a blast of fire at a strand of tape.

 

A flurry of explosions come in contact with Todoroki’s wall as Midnight yells out, “Five minutes!” Anger-issues flies through the gap he created, smoke billowing behind him.

 

“Sorry about this, Shouji,” Todoroki says and lets off a stream of fire by the other boy’s head. Anger-issues yells in fury. A length of tape wraps around his waist before he hits the ground and weird-elbows reels him back in.

 

“Come one, Bakugou!” the pink girl yells, “We don’t have time to beat Todoroki.”

 

Oh, Todoroki thinks, so that’s his name.

 

Bakugou roars and raises a fist in Todoroki’s direction, “We aren’t finished, Cyclops!”

 

They charge in the other direction, headed straight towards team Midoriya. Todoroki waves lazily after them. Tokoyami snorts.

 

“Right incoming,” Shouji warns and Todoroki lets a wave of fire loose without even looking.

 

Dark Shadow wings over their heads and circles to wrap himself in a haze around Tokoyami. In his mouth sits a headband. Tokoyami grabs for it, plants a hand on Dark Shadow's head to make him let go, and stares at the cloth when he finally gets a hold of it.

 

“Hey Shouto,” Tokoyami says, still staring at the cloth. “How mad do you think Bakugou is going to be when he realizes he’s not going to win?”

 

“What?” Todoroki asks, layering hoarfrost over the ground in front of them.

 

Tokoyami holds out the headband for Todoroki to see. In Tokoyami’s palm rests a crumpled cloth with bright red zeroes printed on it.

 

“What’s happening?” Shouji asks.

 

Without a word, Tokoyami leans over and lets the headband unravel from his fist and wave through the air in front of Shouji’s face. Shouji’s eyes widen as he take in Dark Shadow’s prize, the one million-point headband.

 

“Time!” Midnight calls.

 

Tokoyami lets out a whoop and wraps his arms around Shouji’s neck. Todoroki grins under his mask as Shouji whispers, “Holy shit, we did it.”

 

Todoroki is still grinning when they walk into the 1-A waiting room and Satou and Kouda run over. Satou picks him up, cheering like he just won the whole goddamn tournament, and Kouda smiles so hard his eyes crease.

 

Satou crowds them into an empty side room with a tv and passes out snacks while reenacting the cavalry battle from his and Kouda’s point of view. Tokoyami lets Dark Shadow out to receive compliments from Kouda and Shouji laughs in his low voice while chewing on trail mix.

 

Present Mic’s voice crackles through the tv to announce the tournament bracket, accounting for the last minute changes. Satou flops down in a seat next to Todoroki and shakes him gently when his name is brought up.

 

Present Mic’s face disappears and is replaced by a picture of the bracket.

 

Seed 1:

Asui Tsuyu vs. Kaminari Denki

Uraraka Ochako vs. Ashido Mina

 

Seed 2:

Kirishima Eijirou vs. Hatsume Mei

Bakugou Katsuki vs. Yaoyorozu Momo

 

Seed 3:

Shinsou Hitoshi vs. Todoroki Shouto

Sero Hanta vs. Midoriya Izuku

 

Seed 4:

Shiozaki Ibara vs. Shouji Mezou

Iida Tenya vs. Tokoyami Fumikage

 

\--

 

Todoroki watches the first two seeds in the student balcony with his friends. The first matches go according to his predictions, with Asui jumping out of Kaminari’s range every time he let off a burst of electricity until he burned himself out and Uraraka narrowly winning her match by running through Ashido’s acid and receiving some nasty burns in order to catch the other girl off guard.

 

The next two did not end the way Todoroki thought they would. Instead of sending Kirishima out of the ring with any of her inventions, Hatsume treated the match like a presentation and ended it by stepping out of the ring while Kirishima struggled in a net.

 

Yaoyorozu’s match should have resulted in her victory given her class scores, proficiency using her quirk, and overall resourcefulness, Yaoyorozu should have beaten Bakugou. But when Midnight started the match, the girl froze and allowed him to blast her out of the ring.

 

Todoroki gets up from his seat and reciprocates Shouji’s offered fist bump on his way down to the field. Before he reaches the balcony exit, a hand snatches his.

 

Todoroki turns to look at the hand that’s holding his in confusion. It’s not there. He traces where the hand would connect and finds a hollow gym uniform standing in the shadow of the door.

 

Oh, he thinks, it’s Hagakure.

 

He blinks at her. She lets go of his hand.

 

“Look,” she says, “I know we don’t know each other that well but I owe you for U.S.J., even if you were a dumbass with the whole charging in thing.”

 

“Okay?”

 

“Ugh. You’re so emotionally constipated. Okay, so I talked to Mashirao about why he dropped out of the tournament and it was because he doesn’t remember anything about the cavalry match. The guy you’re facing, Shinsou, has some kind of mind control quirk.

 

“Mashirao said he can’t remember anything from when he answered the guy’s question, but does remember what happened after he was shoved during the competition.”

 

Todoroki stares at her. “Thank you,” he says. It sounds more like a question than a statement.

 

“Yeah, no problem. Just don’t expect anything like this again,” Hagakure sniffs, arms of her uniform crossing. “I got a reputation as the buffest bitch to uphold.”

 

Todoroki smiles despite himself, “Of course.”

 

Present Mic’s voice rings out through the arena. “Todorki Shouto and Shinsou Hitoshi, please come down to the field!”

 

Hagakure turns and walks through the door to the balcony. Todoroki watches her sit beside Ojirou and punch him in the arm. He walks out into the hallway and makes his way down to the ring.

-

 

“Ready! Begin!” Midnight yells.

 

Across from Todoroki, Shinsou opens his mouth and begins to speak. However, before he can say anything, flames erupt from Todoroki’s left side and drip down his arm.

 

Shinsou slides one foot backwards, tensing his legs and preparing to jump out of the way of a fireball. None come.

 

Instead, the fire peters out and in its place wraps a bright red burn. Todoroki grimaces and shakes his arm, scattering the ashes of his gym uniform across the cement platform.

 

“What is this? Aizawa, your students are crazy!” Present Mic shouts from the commentating box.

 

Shinsou stares at Todoroki. “What-, why would you do that to yourself?”

 

Todoroki flexes his arm. “A hunch,” he says, eye curving into a perfect crescent.

 

He feels something, a strange snag inside his brain that tries to push him aside. A feeling of apathy wraps through his mind and twists his thoughts into vague, meaningless wisps.

 

Todoroki’s hand twitches unconsciously, pain flares up his arm. He blinks, the blurriness fading.

 

Shinsou is glaring at him now. Todoroki looks across the field and smiles with his visible eye. “What was that?” He asks.

 

“You don’t understand, do you?” Shinsou asks. “You’ll never understand what it’s like to not have the chance to be a hero, to have a noncombatative quirk that prevents you from being a hero, a quirk that people call evil.”

 

Todoroki shakes his arm again, hissing slightly as the movement pulls at the skin.

 

“People like you, with quirks that are so useful in combat, people who’ve never had to work to get into the hero program, you’ll never understand what it’s like for the rest of us. Hell,” Shinsou laughs, “you probably got in just because of your father.”

 

He steps forward and raises his hands into fists, “I wonder if you even know how to fight without your quirk. I bet you’re more useless than I am in offensive situations!”

 

Todoroki hums, lets the tension flow out of his body. “Why don’t we see?” He asks.

 

“Hah! The great Todoroki fighting without his quirk. I bet you’ll start using it as soon I start kicking your ass!”

 

“Promise,” Todoroki draws an ‘x’ over his chest, “scout’s honor.”

 

Shinsou smiles, wild and angry. “Let’s see how long you can keep that promise, then.”

 

He charges. Todoroki drops one foot back, waits until Shinsou swings his first punch, and ducks under it. He jabs the other boy in the side, hard, and continues his movement past Shinsou as the other boy twists in on himself.

 

Todoroki grabs the elbow Shinsou throws, pulls his arm behind him and wrenches it up. “Yield?” He asks, voice soft.

 

Shinsou wiggles, hooks a foot back to kick at Todoroki. He swings the arm that isn’t pinned into Todoroki’s burned arm, and Todoroki grits his teeth through the pain.

 

He’s had worse.

 

Todoroki pulls the pinned arm up higher against Shinsou’s back and watches the boy try to bend backwards to relieve pressure.

 

“Yield?” He asks again.

 

“Shit,” Shinsou swears through his teeth. He tries one last punch, but Todoroki grabs his flailing hand with his burned one and shoves it into the ground.

 

“Fuck. Fine.” Shinsou’s head drops to the ground. Todoroki watches his brow furrow in pain and sweat drip down his face to land on the concrete floor.

 

“Yield,” Shinsou gasps.

 

"Hey," Todoroki murmurs, "you would have won this if I wasn't tipped off. Don't put yourself down so much."

 

Todoroki lets go and stands up, brushing the front of his uniform off. Shinsou levers himself up onto his elbows, panting into the ground. Midnight calls the match, Present Mic exclaims about quirkless fighting in a quirk competition, and Todoroki offers a hand to Shinsou’s crouched form.

 

The other boy coughs, spits on the ground, and grabs Todoroki’s hand to get pulled up.

 

Present Mic calls out the next match. Shinsou walks past Todoroki to stare blankly at a section of cheering gen-ed students. Todoroki follows a medic to Recovery Girl’s office.

-

He sits in the balcony with Kouda and Satou to watch the remaining matches in the first elimination round. Kouda worries over his bandaged arm and Satou exclaims about fighting a guy who’s probably trained somewhat in martial arts to make up for his quirk and beating him with one hand.

 

Hagakure raises an arm at him. Todoroki thinks she’s giving him a thumbs up, but it could just as easily be a middle finger.

 

He smiles under his mask and watches his friends’ matches.

 

Shouji makes a good showing against Shiozaki, using his impressive strength to block her vines, but is eventually forced out of the ring by the sheer force of the girl’s plants.

 

Tokoyami somehow manages to beat Iida, despite the other boy’s incredibly fast movements. Using Dark Shadow as a ride, Tokoyami was able to avoid Iida’s kicks until the boy’s engines guttered out.

 

“Oh yeah,” Satou leans over, “Midoriya won while you were with Recovery Girl. Sero had him for a second, but he blew him away with a punch.”

 

Todoroki nods and look up at the bracket for the next matches.

 

Round 2:

Asui Tsuyu vs. Uraraka Ochako

 

Kirishima Eijirou vs. Bakugou Katsuki

 

Todoroki Shouto vs. Midoriya Izuku

 

Shiozaki Ibara vs. Tokoyami Fumikage

-

 

Asui and Uraraka are halfway through their match, which is turning out to be more of an elaborate game of tag than an actual fight, when Todoroki hears someone approach him.

 

“Um, Todoroki?”

 

He looks behind him. It’s Midoriya, anxiously tugging on the bottom of his uniform. “Could I talk with you for a minute?”

 

Todoroki nods and turns to face the other boy fully.

 

“Um,” Midoriya hesitates again, “Alone?”

 

Todoroki looks at him, calculates the probability that Midoriya would try to take him out before their match, and laughs at himself for even thinking about that. He gets up, flexing his left arm a few times to test its mobility, and taps Satou on the shoulder.

 

“I’ll be right back.”

 

Satou waves him off and Kouda gives him a small thumbs up, signing ‘you okay?’

 

“Yeah,” Todoroki replies. He follows Midoriya out of the balcony and down a staircase. They walk until they reach the end of a hall. Midoriya stands across from him, left side highlighted in the sun, and opens his mouth to speak.

 

“I know this might be a bit presumptuous, but um, I know you aren’t going all out. You didn’t even use your quirk on Shinsou and during the race you let us win.”

 

Todoroki says nothing. It’s true.

 

Midoriya looks up at him, darts his eyes away and wets his lips before continuing. “I know you might think that you don’t have to try that hard to beat us, because you are a lot better than us, but I want you to go all out in our match.”

 

His hands ball into fists and light shines through his eyes. Midoriya raises his face to stare Todoroki in the eyes and, with determination burning through him, says, “I’m tough. You’re not going to hurt me. You can go all out, even if it is just this once. For the sake of this competition, for the sake of all the other people trying their hardest to win, let’s hold nothing back.”

-

 

Todoroki walks into the stadium to the roar of the crowds. Fire flares from the corners of the ring and across from him stands Midoriya, expression devoid of his usual anxiety and features sharp with concentration.

 

Todoroki breathes out, lets his shoulders fall and his heart rate steady. The sounds of the audience fade out. His focus narrows on the boy across from him.

 

Distantly, he can hear the crack of a whip. Midoriya charges.

 

Ice spreads out from Todoroki’s feet, encircles the ring and grows into massive peaks. Midoriya reaches the half way point between the two of them. Fire burns into existence, ripples off Todoroki’s arm and spreads around the two of them, instantly melting the peaks of ice and leaving boiling water bubbling on the cement.

 

A cloud of steam rises, obscuring the vision of the crowd. Midoriya is fifty feet away, light flowing down his arm and encasing his fist in red.

 

Todoroki reaches for the boiling water around the ring and plants a foot behind him. He sweeps both of his arms forward. Midoriya stumbles to a stop.

 

The crowd is silent. A creaking sound echoes off the stadium. In the middle of the field, the ring has been encased in a glacier of transparent ice.

 

Midoriya stares upwards, mouth open as he takes in the solid ceiling of ice above them. Cementoss stands from his chair, figure rippling and distorting through the glacier.

 

“And Todoroki has trapped himself and Midoriya in a block of ice! Aizawa, do you have any idea about what your student is thinking?”

 

Present Mic’s voice rings hollowly through the glacier, barely reaching the two boys inside of it. Todoroki grits his teeth, lets flames unspool into his palm, and releases a fireball to hang over his and Midoriya’s heads.

 

The fire twists in on itself, sucking the air from inside of the glacier. Todoroki takes a breath and holds it.

 

“W-what?” Midoriya gasps.

 

The fireball gutters and dims. Midoriya stumbles slightly, mouth open and breathing audible in the silence of the glacier.

 

It should only take a minute, Todoroki thinks, for him to pass out.

 

He counts the seconds as Midoriya lands on a knee, chest heaving from lack of air. The fire dwindles even more, barely basketball size now.

 

Todoroki’s lungs start to sting. Midoriya falls to both his knees and bends over, wheezing. The sound of the crowd swells and Present Mic’s frantic commentary seeps through the ice.

 

Midoriya pulls on hand back, electricity crackling through his arm, and aims at the side of the glacier.

 

Todoroki’s eyes widen and he races to intercept the blow. He’s watches Midoriya’s fist almost in slow motion as the boy punches, power tearing through his bones and racing into the ice.

 

A muffled thump comes from inside the ice, a harsh crack as the glacier splinters, and a boom resounds through the arena as the tiny fireball balloons at the sudden rush of air and sends fragments of ice flying.

 

Smoke billows from the ring. The crowd is horribly silent.

 

After a minute, it clears. Todoroki is standing still, wrapped in ice up to his neck to stay in place. Midoriya lies, knocked out and singed, outside of the ring.

 

Midnight’s whip cracks.

-

 

Todoroki is checked over by a medic and released when they find nothing larger than a scrape on him. He gets tackled by Kouda when he reaches the balcony. He reassures his three friends and sits in the middle of them to watch Tokoyami’s match.

 

Shiozaki fights hard but gets flanked by Dark Shadow and pushed out of bounds. Present Mic announces the next matches in time with the screens surrounding the stadium.

 

Round 3:

Uraraka Ochako vs. Bakugou Katsuki

 

Todoroki Shouto vs. Tokoyami Fumikage

-

 

Uraraka’s match against Bakugou is brutal. She runs at him again and again, building a floating mass of debris above their heads. The bandages from her fight against Ashido burn under Bakugou’s onslaught and fall off her red arms. In the end, Bakugou wins, but his arms twitch and his fingers curl in spastic bursts.

 

Quirk overuse, Todoroki thinks. He reworks his plan on his way down to the field.

 

Tokoyami greets him with a small wave. Todoroki huffs a laugh and flashes a lazy peace sign.

 

Midnight starts the match. Todoroki pulls a fire ball from the air, pours power into it until it burns blue and white, and throws it at Dark Shadow.

 

He dodges, but cannot escape the blaze of light. Dark Shadow squawks, flails in the air, and shoots back towards Tokoyami.

 

Tokoyami sighs as Dark Shadow cowers behind him. “Well,” he says, “good match.”

 

“Sure,” Todoroki replies with a grin and slams both palms on the ground. An iceberg shoots forward, trapping Tokoyami.

 

Tokoyami lets his head fall back against the ice with a thud. He waves the hand not pinned at Midnight. “I yield.”

 

Todoroki sticks his hands in his pockets and casually walks across the ring to unfreeze Tokoyami. The other boy steps on his foot in revenge and Todoroki makes sure to act wounded while leaning an arm on Tokoyami’s shoulder.

 

“Why must you hurt me so?”

 

Tokoyami snorts and elbows him in the gut. “Good luck on the next match.”

 

On cue, Present Mic announces the final fight.

 

Round 4:

Todoroki Shouto vs. Bakugou Katsuki

-

 

Todoroki beings his final match by freezing the entire ring over. Bakugou tries to run at him, almost falls on his face, and takes to the air with explosions.

 

Good, Todoroki thinks, now to wear him out.

 

The match devolves into one of the most destructive cat-and-mouse games most of the audience has ever witnessed, with Bakugou screaming curses as he flies at Todoroki and Todoroki deftly sliding away from Bakugou’s blasts.

 

Whenever the other boy tries to land, Todoroki creates spines of ice to grab at his feet. In five minutes, Bakugou is grimacing in pain and coasting lower to the ground as his hands cramp with quirk overuse.

 

Seven minutes in, Todoroki sends a pillar of ice into Bakugou’s gut and knocks the boy to the ground. Bakugou heaves, chokes on vomit, and struggles to get away from the ice creeping up his body. He closes his hand into a fist and punches as the ice, barely chipping it.

 

“Fuck!” Bakugou roars and lets loose a booming explosion that destroys the ice around him. He stands, wobbling and holding his arm, and yells something indecipherable as he pushes off the ground at Todoroki.

 

Todoroki waits until Bakugou is above him, hand outstretched and crackling with weak explosions. He lazily raises his palm, and sends a wave of fire at the other boy.

 

Bakugou tumbles out of the air and across the ring with the force of the blast. He retches, sits up using his knees, and tries to stand without the help of his trembling hands.

 

Midnight’s whip cracks. Out of bounds.

 

Bakugou sags, screams “fuck you, you shitty Cyclops” one last time, and passes out. The waiting medical staff wheel him away on a stretcher.

 

Todoroki ends his day with a gold medal, a hug from All Might, and a notification on his cell phone. He slips away from his friends to check his message board.

 

-

/banned_footage/ CREATED (Fri)19:03 BY k1llj0y

 

k1llj0y

>banned footage no celeb/gore/ylyl

 

k1llj0y

>@all The hero Ingenium has been severely injured by hero killer

>Police reports so far put the incident as happening 14:45 today, during the U.A. festival

>Hero org is trying to keep the news quiet, it should break next Monday

 

dronehead

>@k1llj0y I got footage of attack

 

dronehead

>@k1llj0y herokiller_vs_ingenium.mov

 

gayjackiechan

>hooooly shit

>@sharkfuckah

 

sharkfuckah

>getting it verified

 

thotpatrol_3133

>hero killer tag is trending rn

 

sadboizz

>holy shit is this real?

 

sharkfuckah

>@gayjackiechan @sadboizz its real

 

uknoihad2

>Reformers plant witnessed Hero Killer walking into meeting with LOV 10 min ago

 

k1llj0y

>@uknoihad2 any idea of where they are going to strike next?

 

-

 

In the other room, Satou laughs loudly as Shouji suggests his sugar-high self fight Kaminari after the other boy fries his brain. Tokoyami starts a bet and Kouda giggles and there’s the sound of one of Shouji’s hands landing on someone’s head.

 

Todoroki thinks of terror and failed men and corruption and bloody revolutions.

 

He types out a message, hovers his thumb over the button for a second, and presses send.

 

-

>>WELCOME rokudaime.hokage TO vid/banned_footage/

 

rokudaime.hokage

>@all i believe it’s time to intervene

 

-

 

Across the city, pale fingers hold up a photograph.

 

“-and we are going to start with him.”

 

Bloodshot eyes stare at the picture and a fat tongue swipes dryly over the man’s lips. An awful smile twists over his face as he takes in the image of a boy walking through the Sports Festival gates.

 

“I think I can help you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Follow me on Tumblr](https://somewherefarfromvictory.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Part 2 coming soon. It will include the following:
> 
> Knife fights, Endeavor getting roasted, Tokoyami's twitter, wholesome friendships, Shouji's beautiful buff arms, Hagakure's beautiful buff arms (arm wrestling? who knows), Kouda being the purest child, League of Villains, gratuitous Avengers references, some morally grey ocs, Satou's memes, Todoroki's crush on Present Mic, everyone's crush on Todoroki, did I say wholesome friendships? Because that's all I can write.
> 
> I would like to send a thank you to everyone who reads this fic, likes it or comments on it, maybe bookmarks it for future updates. You guys keep me writing and I love reading what your suggestions. Thank you so much and I'll see you soon.
> 
> Where Tokoyami went that one time he said 'brb':  
> This will be addressed in the next part of the series. See the second and third things mentioned above.
> 
> Here are the cavalry teams:  
> Team Todoroki- Todoroki, Shouji, Tokoyami  
> Team Midoriya- Midoriya, Uraraka, Hatsume, Kaminari  
> Team Bakugou- Bakugou, Kirishima, Ashido, Sero  
> Team Yaorozoru- Yaorozoru, Iida, Asui
> 
> Two guys quit on Shinsou’s team but to even out the brackets, only Ibara got to compete. M*neta was not picked for a team and was escorted out, crying like a little bitch, by a pissed off Kamui Woods.


End file.
